PLATE QUADRILATERAL FINITE-ELEMENT WITH INCOMPATIBLE MODES

A four-node quadrilateral plate element with a set of incompatible modes is presented in this work. In an analysis of thin plates, the element exhibits a similar performance as the well known discrete Kirchhoff plate element. The computational effort associated with the element is also comparable to that associated with the discrete Kirchhoff element. However, as opposed to the discrete Kirchhoff plate element, the presented plate element is based on the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory and can be used in a thick plate analysis as well.