An alternative alpha finite element method with discrete shear gap technique for analysis of laminated composite plates

This paper presents an alternative alpha finite element method using triangular meshes (A alpha FEM) for static, free vibration and buckling analyses of laminated composite plates. In the A alpha FEM, an assumed strain field is carefully constructed by combining compatible strains and additional strains with an adjustable parameter alpha which can produce an effectively softer stiffness formulation compared to the linear triangular element. The stiffness matrices are obtained based on the strain smoothing technique over the smoothing domains and the constant strains on triangular sub-domains associated with the nodes of the elements. The discrete shear gap (DSG) method is incorporated into the A alpha FEM to eliminate transverse shear locking and an improved triangular element termed as A alpha DSG3 is proposed. Several numerical examples are then given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the A alpha DSG3. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.