An efficient three-node triangular element to study the response of coupled bending-twisting effects for symmetrically laminated plates

A new efficient three-node triangular plate element with three degrees of freedom-one transverse displacement and two rotations-at each node suitable for a bending-twisting response of moderately-thick and thin symmetrically laminated composite plates is presented. The deformation formulation of the plate element is based on Reissner and Mindlin's theory that incorporates the effects of transverse shear deformations. The element normally shows a severe shear locking effect in thin plate situations using isoparametric interpolation functions with full integration scheme. A constant transverse shear strain criterion is now implemented in its formulation along with a recently developed transverse shear strain correction expression to circumvent such locking effects. The element shows a robustness for regular and cross-diagonal triangular mesh configurations in both moderately-thick and thin situations. The element shows fast convergence, and remains stable for the three-point integration scheme. For the purpose of illustration, the numerical results are presented for symmetrically angle-ply laminated simply-supported and fully-clamped edge plates that produce bending-twisting coupling. The results are compared with recently available double Fourier series and generalized Wavier's - based analytical solutions, and a well-established finite element solution.