A NEW DISPLACEMENT-BASED ELEMENT FOR THE ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES WITH HYBRID-ENHANCED STRESS SOLUTIONS

The formulation of a new simple displacement-based, quadrilateral 20 DOF (5 DOF per node) finite element based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) for analysis of laminated composite plates is presented in this paper. This new element, termed as TMQ20, is free of shear locking and has a proper rank. Moreover, a new simple hybrid procedure is also proposed to improve the stress solutions of such displacement-based elements. The new element TMQ20 possesses the advantages of both displacement and hybrid elements. Thus, excellent results for both displacements and stresses, especially the transverse shear stresses, can be obtained. Numerical examples show that the proposed element is a high performance element for moderately thick and very thin composite plates. Furthermore, the proposed hybrid-enhanced procedure is a general approach, which can be generalized to improve the stress solutions of displacement-based elements for all kinds of problems.