On the formulation and evaluation of old and new efficient low order triangular plate bending elements with shear effects (Q2666080)

The article presents some plate finite elements having three independent variables (transverse displacement and two rotations) at the nodes of a grid. This subject is not new, but the article contains some additional information regarding existing bending finite elements and also proposes the formulations of few new finite elements. A mixed functional for the modified Hellinger-Reissner variational principle connected with transverse displacement, two independent rotations and transverse shear strains is proposed. The result of the present paper provides more deep theoretical understanding of known mixed finite elements and gives also a new approach to construct other similar low-order finite elements. The development of triangular bending elements for thin and thick plates was made here. The paper contains results of patch tests of the proposed finite elements for different plates. Shear forces distribution was considered with account of boundary layer effects. The convergence on different grids not only displacements, but bending moments and shear forces shows high efficiency of the proposed mixed finite elements.