The quadratic MITC plate and MITC shell elements in plate bending (Q964352)

The authors compare the performance of the triangular MITC7 plate and MITC6 shell elements, and the quadrilateral MITC9 plate and MITC9 shell elements in some typical linear plate bending problems. The MITC plate and MITC shell elements are based on Reissner-Mindlin kinematic assumptions. The MITC7 and MITC9 plate elements have an internal node with only rotational degrees of freedom, whereas the MITC6 and MITC9 shell elements carry the same degrees of freedom at each node: for plate analysis, the transverse displacement and two section rotations. The MITC9 plate and MITC9 shell finite elements have different interpolation functions and tying points for the transverse shear strains. The MITC plate and shell elements are therefore clearly different. Since the shell elements are general and can be used for linear and nonlinear analyses of plates and shells, it is important to identify the differences in the performance of these elements when compared to the plate elements. The shell elements have not (yet) been analyzed mathematically in depth for their rates of convergence, but have been shown numerically to perform well. To investigate the above situation, the authors consider here three linear problems of different geometries (square, circular and skewed plates).