Resultant fields for mixed plate bending elements (Q1174595)

A mixed formulation is introduced for plate bending finite elements based upon the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory. The Hellinger-Reissner variational principle is applied. The formulation introduces an explicit coupling between interpolations of the shear and moment stress resultant fields. In this connection the resulting elements are free of shear locking and possess the correct rank as proved and demonstrated by the numerical results. The coupling term introduced is consistent with the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory. Both the CRB1 and CRB2 elements presented in this paper yield good results for thin and thick plates.