FINITE-ELEMENT FOR COMPOSITE PLATE-BENDING BASED ON EFFICIENT HIGHER-ORDER THEORY

A triangular bending element based on an efficient higher order plate theory is developed for symmetric laminated composites. This nonconforming element has five degrees of freedom in each node. It passes proper bending and shear patch tests in arbitrary meshes in isotropic materials. Thus it converges to the exact solution. To demonstrate the element and compare with other theories, finite element solutions are obtained for a static bending problem under sinusoidal loading. The present finite element results give deflections and stresses that are in good agreement with three-dimensional elasticity solutions. Thus this element provides an efficient and accurate tool for the analysis of symmetric multilayered composite plates.