A new triangular element for the analysis of thick and thin plates

A new triangular element based on Reissner-Mindlin's plate theory is presented. It has three corner nodes and three mid-side nodes where each node contains three usual degrees of freedom, i.e. transverse displacement (omega) and rotations of the normal to the plate middle plane due to bending and shear (theta (x) and theta (y)). The element formulation is based on displacement approach and it is done in such a manner, which has made the element free from shear locking and spurious modes. This is achieved through proper selection of displacement field and its representation. It contains transverse displacement (omega) and rotations of normal due to shear (gamma (x) and gamma (y)). The concept of taking gamma (x) and gamma (y) as independent displacement components instead of theta (x) and theta (y) has helped to develop such an element. The performance of the element is tested through numerical examples. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.