Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Mechanical Engineering 1 7 2013 11 25 FSD and its Modifications for Shell Finite Elements 427 433 EN Milan Sága Department of Applied Mechanics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Univerzity of Žilina, Žilina, Slovak Republic Peter Pecháč Milan Vaško AJME20131755 10.12691/ajme-1-7-55 2013 10 25 2013 11 15 2013 11 25 Our paper deals with theoretical and numerical study of the discrete fully stress design (FSD) algorithms for thin shell finite elements. Authors present seven mathematical formulations of the direct strength designing. Relations between stresses, membrane and bending element forces (moments) and element thicknesses are studied. Using selected numerical tests of the proposed algorithms are compared.