C. Weischedel, A. Tuganov, T. Hermansson, J. Linn, M. Wardetzky

• In the presented work, we make use of the strong reciprocity between kinematics and geometry to build a geometrically nonlinear, shearable low order discrete shell model of Cosserat type defined on triangular meshes, from which we deduce a rotation–free Kirchhoff type model with the triangle vertex positions as degrees of freedom. Both models behave physically plausible already on very coarse meshes, and show good convergence properties on regular meshes. Moreover, from the theoretical side, this deduction provides a common geometric framework for several existing models.