Design principles and error analysis for reduced-shear plate-bending finite elements (Q1358126)

We consider the design of plate-bending elements which are free of shear locking. To avoid locking, a ``reduction operator'' is often applied to the stress to modify the variational formulation and reduce the effect of this constraint. We investigate the conditions required on such reduction operators to ensure that the approximability and consistency errors are of the right order. A set of sufficient conditions is presented, under which optimal errors can be obtained. Our general theory is used to analyze the well-known MITC elements for the Reissner-Mindlin plate. The theory makes it possible to analyze both straight and curved elements. We also analyze some other elements.