Quadratic triangular C-degrees plate bending element

In this paper, a six-node triangular CO plate bending element is developed by the assumed strain formulation. The sampled transverse shear strains in the element are chosen such that the latter has a favourable constraint index of shear locking and the strains ale optimized with respect to a linear pure bending displacement/rotation field. It happens that the optimal strains are the mean stains along the element edges and medians. Numerical examples reveal that the element is free from shear locking and passes all the patch tests for plate bending elements. Moreover, the element accuracy is close to that of a state-of-the-art seven-node assumed strain element.