THIN AND THICK PLATE BENDING ELEMENT BASED ON INCOMPATIBLE METHODS AND DEGENERATED SOLID CONCEPT

A plate bending element is derived from the familiar 8-node brick element. To overcome the thickness locking of the element, the degenerated solid approach is adopted by modifying the elastic constitutive relation. A user-defined local coordinate system is established to conveniently introduce the incompatible modes, which are effective to rectify the shear locking. To pass the patch test, the constant strain matrix is modified. The element is suitable for laminated structures by calculating the element stiffness matrix over the subdomains. Numerical examples show the applicability and effectivity of the element formulation.