  This paper studies elasto-plastic large deformation behavior of thin shell
structures using the isogeometric computational approach with the main focus on
the efficiency in modelling the multi-patches and arbitrary material
formulations. In terms of modelling, we employ the bending strip method to
connect the patches in the structure. The incorporation of bending strips
allows to eliminate the strict demand of the C1 continuity condition, which is
postulated in the Kirchhoff-Love theory for thin shell, and therefore it
enables us to use the standard multi-patch structure even with C0 continuity
along the patch boundaries. Furthermore, arbitrary nonlinear material models
such as hyperelasticity and finite strain plasticity are embedded in the shell
formulation, from which a unified thin shell formulation can be achieved. In
terms of analysis, the Bezier decomposition concept is used to retain the local
support of the traditional finite element. The performance of the presented
approach is verified through several numerical benchmarks.
