Solid strain based finite element implemented in ABAQUS for static and dynamic plate analysis

An existing robust three dimensional finite element based on the strain approach is presented. This element is implemented, for the first time in the commercial computer code ABAQUS, by using the subroutine (UEL), for the static and dynamic analysis of isotropic plates, whatever thin or thick. It is Baptised SBH8 (Strain Based Hexahedral with 8 nodes) and has the advantage to overcome the problems involved in numerical locking, when the thickness of the plate tends towards the smallest values. The implementation is justified by the capacities broader than offers this code, especially, in the free frequencies computation. The results obtained by the present element are better than those given by elements used by ABAQUS code and the other elements found in the literature, having the same number of nodes.