Static analysis of Reissner-Mindlin plates using ES+NS-MITC3 elements

In this research, the smoothed finite element methods (S-FEM) based on the edge-based (ES) and node-based (NS) approaches are combined to develop for the 3-node triangular plate element which uses the mixed interpolation of tensorial components (MITC3) technique to remove the shear-locking phenomenon. This approach is based on the βFEM in which the parameter β is used to tune the contribution ratio of the edge-based and node-based smoothed domains. The strain fields of the proposed ES+NS-MITC3 element are smoothed on a part of the edge-based domains and the other on the node-based domains which are respectively defined by elements sharing common edges and common nodes. The ES+NS-MITC3 element passes the patch test and is employed to statically analyze some benchmark Reissner-Mindlin plates, including square and rhombus ones. Numerical results show that, in both thin and thick plates the ES+NS-MITC3 element can give results better than similar elements using the ES-FEM or NS-FEM only.