Optimal error bounds for the MITC4 plate bending element (Q2505620)

The author derives an optimal error bound for the MITC4 (mixed interpolation of tensorial components elements) plate element with 4 nodes. The result obtained is therefore equivalent to that known in literature, apart from an additional uniform estimate of shear strain error in the classical Sobolev space of order \(-1\). On the other hand, the exposition presented in this paper is totally different in the sense that the proofs can be considered as an extension of Helmholtz decomposition that has already been used for the rest of MITC family, while other results are based on the projection operator. Both proofs use the Q1-PO Stokes stability. As MITC4 elements are important for applications, it is of interest to have two different approaches to prove their optimality, in particular in view of possible future extensions of these elements to more complicated problems (shells, nonlinear plates, laminated plates, etc.).