Development of eight-node quadrilateral membrane elements using the area coordinates method

Two eight-node quadrilateral elements, namely, AQ8-I and AQ8-II, have been developed using the quadrilateral area coordinate and generalized conformin g methods. Some appropriate examples were employed to evaluate the performa nce of the proposed elements. The numerical results show that the proposed elements are superior to the standard eight-node isoparametric element, the reafter called Q8. This is because the former does not only possess the sam e accuracy as the latter when regular meshes are employed for analysis, but is also very insensitive to mesh distortion, for which the Q8 element can not handle. It has also been demonstrated that the area coordinate method i s an efficient tool for developing simple, effective and reliable serendipi ty plane membrane elements.