Reissner-Mindlin Plates -1-

! Plate theory with transverse shear deformations. Almost all commercial

codes (Abaqus, LS-Dyna, Ansys, …) use Reissner-Mindlin type plate finite
elements

! Kinematic assumptions

!" - angle of shearing (was zero for Kirchhoff plate)

deformed
configuration

reference
configuration

! In-plane displacements

! Out-of-plane displacements

Page 67 Fehmi Cirak

Reissner-Mindlin Plates -2-

! Strains

! Weak form of equilibrium / Principal of virtual displacements

! Internal virtual work

! Bending moment

! Shear force

Page 68 Fehmi Cirak

 Reissner-Mindlin Plates -3-
! External virtual work (e.g. distributed surface load or pressure loading)

! Principle of virtual work for the Reissner-Mindlin plate (with summation convention)

! Constitutive equations

Note this is plane stress

Page 69 Fehmi Cirak

Finite Element Discretization -1-

! The independent variables to be interpolated are

! Only the interpolant and its first derivative needs to be square integrable " Lagrange shape
functions are sufficient

Page 70 Fehmi Cirak

 Finite Element Discretization -2-
! The constitutive matrices in compact form

! Element stiffness matrix (with bending and shear component)

! The integrals are evaluated with numerical integration. If too few integration points are used, the
element stiffness matrix will be rank deficient.
! The rank of the properly integrated stiffness matrix must be 12-3=9
! The necessary number of integration points for the bilinear element is 2x2

Page 71 Fehmi Cirak

Shear Locking Problem

! The basic problem is essentially the same like for the Timoshenko
beam
! With increasing plate slenderness the out-of-plane shear deformation goes to zero

! 1D example: Timoshenko beam with linear shape functions

! For a beam in a state of pure bending

Page 72 Fehmi Cirak

 Constraint Ratio (Hughes et al.) -1-
! A quick device for estimating an element’s propensity to lock
! Number of equilibrium equations: 3 (two for bending moments + one for shear force)
! Number of shear strain constraints in the thin limit: 2

! Constraint ratio for the continuous problem

! Constraint ratio for the discrete problem

! Number of degrees of freedom per element on a very large mesh is ~3
! Number of constraints per element for 2x2 integration is 8

! Number of constraints per element for one integration point is 2

Page 73 Fehmi Cirak

Constraint Ratio (Hughes et al.) -2-

! Constraint ratio for a 9 node element
! Number of degrees of freedom per element on a very large mesh is ~ 4x3 =12
! Number of constraints per element for 3x3 integration is 18

! Constraint ratio for a 16 node element

! Number of degrees of freedom per element on a very large mesh is ~9x3=27
! Number of constraints per element for 4x4 integration is 32

Page 74 Fehmi Cirak

 Uniform And Selective Reduced Integration -1-
! The easiest approach to avoid shear “locking” in thin plates is some
form of reduced integration

! In uniform reduced integration the bending and shear terms are integrated with same
rule, which is lower than the “normal”

! In selective reduced integration the bending term is integrated with the normal rule and
the shear term with a lower-order rule

! Reduced integrated elements have usually rank deficiency (i.e.

there are internal mechanisms; deformations which do not need
energy
! Rank of a matrix: see e.g. Introduction to Applied Mathematics by G. Strang

Page 75 Fehmi Cirak

Uniform And Selective Reduced Integration -2-

Shape functions Bilinear Biquadratic Bicubic

Uniform reduced
1x1 2x2 3x3
integration

Selective reduced 1x1 shear 2x2 shear 3x3 shear

integration 2x2 bending 3x3 bending 4x4 bending

Page 76 Fehmi Cirak

 Discrete Kirchhoff Triangle Element -1-
! The principal approach is best illustrated with a Timoshenko beam

! The displacements and rotations are approximated with quadratic shape

functions

! The inner variables are eliminated by enforcing zero shear stress at two
gauss points

! Back inserting into the interpolation equations gives a beam

element with 4 nodal parameters

Page 77 Fehmi Cirak

Assumed Strain Elements

! The out-of-plane shear strains for the bilinear element are at the edge
centers zero
! The edge centers are used as a collocation point

! Interpolate the shear strains from the collocation points using special shape
functions

! Methods based on modified B matrices are also called as B-bar methods

! This approach has been utilized by various authors, amongst others
! MITC4 element by Bathe et al. and the ANS (Assumed Natural Strain) method by Park et al.

Page 78 Fehmi Cirak