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General Description
Section 1
1-22
The distinguishing features of this finite element are:
1) Displacement compatibility between the plane stress component
of one element and the plate bending component of an adjacent
element which is at an angle to the first (see Fig. below) is
achieved by the elements. This compatibility requirement is
usually ignored in most flat shell/plate elements.
Figure 1.16
2) The out of plane rotational stiffness from the plane stress
portion of each element is usefully incorporated and not
treated as a dummy as is usually done in most commonly
available commercial software.
3) Despite the incorporation of the rotational stiffness mentioned
previously, the elements satisfy the patch test absolutely.
4) These elements are available as triangles and quadrilaterals,
with corner nodes only, with each node having six degrees of
freedom.
5) These elements are the simplest forms of flat shell/plate
elements possible with corner nodes only and six degrees of
freedom per node. Yet solutions to sample problems converge
rapidly to accurate answers even with a large mesh size.
6) These elements may be connected to plane/space frame
members with full displacement compatibility. No additional
restraints/releases are required.
7) Out of plane shear strain energy is incorporated in the
formulation of the plate bending component. As a result, the
elements respond to Poisson boundary conditions which are
considered to be more accurate than the customary Kirchoff
boundary conditions