A comparative study of variable and constant thickness high precision triangular plate bending elements in the analysis of variable thickness plates

Abstract

For the analysis of plate bending and vibration problems high precision triangular elements are very attractive. The effect of thickness variation can be included in these elements very easily at the expense of the computer time, for analysing variable thickness plates. On the other hand, variable thickness plates can be analysed as stepped plates with constant thickness elements with less computer time. In this paper a comparative study of the use of variable thickness and constant thickness elements for analysing variable thickness plates is attempted by solving three typical problems. The results show that for static problems there is a marginal accuracy when using variable thickness elements as against average thickness elements. However, for vibration problems even though there is not much difference in the fundamental frequency parameter obtained by using both elements, the higher modes obtained by using variable thickness elements are very accurate.