This paper deals with the finite element approximation of the vibration modes of a laminated plate modeled by the Reissner-Mindlin equations; DL3 elements are used for the bending terms and standard piecewise linear continuous elements for the in-plane displacements. An a priori estimate of the regularity of the solution, independent of the plate thickness, is proved for the corresponding load ...

Finite element methods for the Reissner–Mindlin plate theory are discussed. Methods in which both the tranverse displacement and the rotation are approximated by finite elements of low degree mostly suffer from locking. However a number of related methods have been devised recently which avoid locking effects. Although the finite element spaces for both the rotation and transverse displacement ...

A new method for the Reissner-Mindlin plate has been proposed. The nonconform-ing Wilson element is used for transverse displacement, rotation is approximated by the usual bilinear element, and an orthogonal projection is applied to the shear stress term. The uniform convergence with respect to the plate thickness is established. Numerical results are provided. The new method is simple in imple...

In this paper we present a solution to a shape optimization problem involving plate and shell structures subject to natural vibration. The volume is chosen as the response to be minimized under a specified eigenvalue constraint with mode tracking. The designed boundaries are assumed to be movable in the in-plane direction so as to maintain the initial curvatures. The surfaces are discretized by...

In this paper, micromechanics methods are applied to characterize the damage of plate structures, both Love-Kirchhoff and Reissner-Mindlin plates, due to microcrack distribution. Analytical expressions for effective stiffness of a damaged plate with distributed microcracks are derived for the first time. The results are compared with the results based on continuum damage theory, and it is found...

Nonlinear plate bending within Mindlin's strain gradient elasticity theory (SGT) is investigated by employing somewhat non-standard finite element methods. The main goal to compare the results provided geometrically nonlinear three-dimensional (3D) and Reissner–Mindlin theory, i.e., first-order shear deformation (FSDT), SGT. For 3D Green–Lagrange relations are adopted, while von Kármán strains ...

In this paper we analyze the convergence of mixed finite element approximations to the solution of the Reissner-Mindlin plate problem. We show that several known elements fall into our analysis, thus providing a unified approach. We also introduce a low-order triangular element which is optimalorder convergent uniformly in the plate thickness.