Analysis of thin plate structures using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation

The absolute nodal coordinate formulation can be used in multibody system applications where the rotation and deformation within the finite element are large and where there is a need to account for geometrical non-linearities. In this formulation, the gradients of the global positions are used as nodal coordinates and no rotations are interpolated over the finite element. For thin plate and shell elements, the plane stress conditions can be applied and only gradients obtained by differentiation with respect to the element mid-surface spatial parameters need to be defined. This automatically reduces the number of element degrees of freedoms, eliminates the high frequencies due to the oscillations of some gradient components along the element thickness, and as a result makes the plate element computationally more efficient. In this paper, the performance of a thin plate element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation is investigated. The lower dimension plate element used in this investigation allows for an arbitrary rigid body displacement and large deformation within the element. The element leads to a constant mass matrix and zero Coriolis and centrifugal forces. The performance of the element is compared with other plate elements previously developed using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation. It is shown that the finite element used in this investigation is much more efficient when compared with previously proposed elements in the case of thin structures. Numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the formulation developed in this paper and the computational advantages gained from using the thin plate element. The thin plate element examined in this study can be efficiently used in many applications including modelling of paper materials, belt drives, rotor dynamics, and tyres.