A triangular shear-flexible finite element for moderately thick laminated composite plates

Abstract An element of triangular shape is formulated by using independent descriptions of the total and flexural displacement components and strain energy written in terms of those components. Numerically exact integration is employed in the calculation of element stiffness matrix. The resulting finite element possesses eighteen degrees of freedom for the case of a symmetrically laminated plate. Numerical results are obtained for a wide range of meshes and thickness-to-span ratios, for isotropic, orthotropic and anisotropic plates, with different support and loading conditions. These are compared with available exact, series or finite element solutions. The derived element exhibits desirable convergence characteristics and validates the proposed approach for inclusion of transverse shear deformation.

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