A quadrilateral plate bending element based on deformation modes

In this paper, a quadrilateral element is proposed for the analysis of thin plate bending. This element is non-conforming and consists of four-nodes and twelve degrees of freedom. A third-order field for the element displacement is written in terms of the deformation modes. Moreover, the rotational fields are obtained by utilizing the first-order Jacobean matrix. All interpolation functions are explicitly found by the presented formulation. The stiffness matrix of the element is then computed by using these functions. Finally, the accuracy of the suggested element is evaluated by solving some thin plate bending structures. Numerical findings reveal the new quadrilateral element MKQ12 is robust and accurate for analysis of thin plates.