Development of High-Order Infinite Element Method for Bending Analysis of Mindlin–Reissner Plates

Abstract

An approach is presented for solving plate bending problems using a high-order infinite element method (IEM) based on Mindlin–Reissner plate theory. In the proposed approach, the computational domain is partitioned into multiple layers of geometrically similar virtual elements which use only the data of the boundary nodes. Based on the similarity, a reduction process is developed to eliminate virtual elements and overcome the problem that the conventional reduction process cannot be directly applied. Several examples of plate bending problems with complicated geometries are reported to illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach and the results are compared with those obtained using ABAQUS software. Finally, the bending behavior of a rectangular plate with a central crack is analyzed to demonstrate that the stress intensity factor (SIF) obtained using the high-order PIEM converges faster and closer than low-order PIEM to the analytical solution.