Improved Rectangular Element for Shear Deformable Plates

Abstract

A 40‐degree‐of‐freedom displacement‐type rectangular finite element for shear deformable flat plates is presented. The element includes transverse shear effects, is fully conforming, may be orthotropic, and has a stiffness that may be obtained by closed‐form integration. The element does not appear to lock. Numerical examples for plates with uniform loads and for simply supported and clamped boundary conditions are presented and compared with results from other investigators. These results demonstrate that this element is more flexible than most other finite elements for moderately thick plates. The results also agree well with those from a numerical solution of the three‐dimensional elasticity equations. Convergence to thin‐plate theory is obtained when the length‐to‐thickness ratio is large or when the transverse shear moduli are artificially increased.