Static Analysis of Reissner-Mindlin Plates by a Cell-Based Smoothed Discrete Shear Gap Method (CS-DSG3) Using Triangular Element

Abstract

The cell-based strain smoothing technique is combined with discrete shear gap method (DSG3) using three-node triangular elements to give a so-called the cell-based smoothed discrete shear gap method (CS-DSG3) for static analysis of Reissner-Mindlin plates. In the process of formulating the CS-DSG3, each triangular element is divided into three sub-triangles, and in each sub-triangle, the stabilized DSG3 is used to compute the strains and to avoid the transverse shear locking. Then the strain smoothing technique on whole the triangular element is used to smooth the strains on these three sub-triangles. The numerical examples demonstrated that the CS-DSG3 is free of shear locking, passes the patch test and achieves the high accuracy compared to others existing elements.