Quadrilateral finite elements for multilayer sandwich plates

Abstract

The bending behaviour of isotropic and laminated composite and sandwich plates has been analysed using two new C° assumed strain quadrilateral finite element formulations based on a refined form of Reddy's higher-order theory. The assumed strain approach ensures that there are no parasitic spurious zero energy modes and no shear locking. The element performances are evaluated on some standard plate tests involving closed-form solutions and experimental results. All results indicate that the present elements have satisfactory convergence properties, accuracy in the results and freedom from any major defects.