A shear‐flexible triangular finite element model for laminated composite plates

Abstract

AbstractFormulation and numerical evaluation of a shear‐flexible triangular laminated composite plate finite element is presented in this paper. The element has three nodes at its vertices, and displacements and rotations along with their first derivatives have been chosen as nodal degrees‐of‐freedom. Computation of element matrices is highly simplified by employing a shape function subroutine, and an optimal numerical integration scheme has been used to improve the performance. The element has satisfactory rate of convergence and acceptable accuracy with mesh refinement for thick as well as thin plates of both homogeneous isotropic and laminated anisotropic materials. The numerical studies also suggest that reliable prediction of the behaviour of laminated composite plates necessitates the use of higher order shear‐flexible finite element models, and the proposed finite element appears to have some advantages over available elements.