A new triangular element for the analysis of thick and thin plates

A new triangular element based on Reissner-Mindlin's plate theory is presen ted. It has three corner nodes and three mid-side nodes where each node con tains three usual degrees of freedom, i.e. transverse displacement (omega) and rotations of the normal to the plate middle plane due to bending and sh ear (theta (x) and theta (y)). The element formulation is based on displace ment approach and it is done in such a manner, which has made the element f ree from shear locking and spurious modes. This is achieved through proper selection of displacement field and its representation. It contains transve rse displacement (omega) and rotations of normal due to shear (gamma (x) an d gamma (y)). The concept of taking gamma (x) and gamma (y) as independent displacement components instead of theta (x) and theta (y) has helped to de velop such an element. The performance of the element is tested through num erical examples. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.