An improved 9 DOF Hybrid—Trefftz triangular element for plate bending

This paper presents a new 9 DOF triangular element for plate bending. It is an analytically integrated improved version of the simplest member in the hierarchy of numerically integrated elements. These elements have been based on the so‐called Hybrid—Trefftz model (HT), a recently developed hybrid model associated with enforcing interelement continuity on locally based displacement fields chosen such that they a priori verify the Lagrange plate equation over the element. In the process of development of the element stiffness matrix in a standard HT model, one has to invert the so‐called natural stiffness matrix, a 7 × 7 matrix associated with the expression of the strain energy in terms of the Trefftz's functions of the element. The inversion of this fully populated matrix represents the most expensive part of the calculation of the element. The basic improvement of the standard Hybrid—Trefftz 9 DOF triangle consists in replacing the original Trefftz's functions by new ones which are energy orthogonal and consequently, result in a diagonal natural stiffness matrix. This not only alleviates considerably the computer cost, but also significantly simplifies the algebra making analytical integrations possible. The practical efficiency of the new element which passes the patch test is demonstrated through numerical examples including the difficult simply supported skew plate problem with a strong singularity at its 150° obtuse corner.

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