A QUADRATIC ASSUMED NATURAL STRAIN TRIANGULAR ELEMENT FOR PLATE-BENDING ANALYSIS

In this paper, a six-node triangular C-0 plate bending element is deve loped by the assumed natural strain method. In the element, ail the sa mpled natural transverse shear strains are chosen such that the latter has a favourable constraint index and the strains are optimized with respect to a linear pure moment field. The element passes the patch te sts, yields satisfactory accuracy and shows no sign of shear locking i n all the problems considered. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.