A GENERALIZED CONFORMING RECTANGULAR ELEMENT FOR THICK/THIN PLATES

Based upon the method outlined in1for the formulation of generali-zed conforming element,a generalized conforming rectangular element for thick/thin plates with 20 degrees of freedom is developed.As the nodal she-aring strains γxi and γyi are taken as extra degrees of freedom,the present element is free from“locking”effect in the limit case of thin plate.By satisfying the compatibility conditions of the average displacemenas on each side of the element,the patch test can alway be satzisfied and convergence toward an exact solution is guaranteed.The present element pessesses the same degrees of freedom as the element developed in Ref.2,but gives more accurate results.