An alternative alpha finite element method with discrete shear gap technique for analysis of isotropic Mindlin-Reissner plates

An alternative alpha finite element method (A alpha FEM) coupled with a discrete shear gap technique for triangular elements is presented to significantly improve the accuracy of the standard triangular finite elements for static, free vibration and buckling analyses of Mindlin-Reissner plates. In the A alpha FEM, the piecewise constant strain field of linear triangular elements is enhanced by additional strain terms with an adjustable parameter alpha which results in an effectively softer stiffness formulation compared to the linear triangular element. To avoid the transverse shear locking, the discrete shear gap technique (DSG) is utilized and a novel triangular element, the A alpha-DSG3 is obtained. Several numerical examples show that the A alpha-DSG3 achieves high reliability compared to other existing elements in the literature. Through selection of alpha, under or over estimation of the strain energy can be achieved. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.