Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Mathematical Problems in Engineering

Volume 2015, Article ID 456740, 12 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/456740

Review Article
Developments of Mindlin-Reissner Plate Elements

Song Cen1,2,3 and Yan Shang1,2

1
Department of Engineering Mechanics, School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
2
High Performance Computing Center, School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
3
Key Laboratory of Applied Mechanics, School of Aerospace Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Correspondence should be addressed to Song Cen; censong@tsinghua.edu.cn

Received 8 September 2014; Accepted 13 January 2015

Academic Editor: Xin-Lin Gao

Copyright © 2015 S. Cen and Y. Shang. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Since 1960s, how to develop high-performance plate bending finite elements based on different plate theories has attracted a great
deal of attention from finite element researchers, and numerous models have been successfully constructed. Among these elements,
the most popular models are usually formulated by two theoretical bases: the Kirchhoff plate theory and the Mindlin-Reissener plate
theory. Due to the advantages that only 𝐶0 continuity is required and the effect of transverse shear strain can be included, the latter
one seems more rational and has obtained more attention. Through abundant works, different types of Mindlin-Reissener plate
models emerged in many literatures and have been applied to solve various engineering problems. However, it also brings FEM
users a puzzle of how to choose a “right” one. The main purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the development history
of the Mindlin-Reissner plate elements, exhibiting the state-of-art in this research field. At the end of the paper, a promising method
for developing “shape-free” plate elements is recommended.

1. Introduction arbitrary finite elements is still a very challenging problem

nowadays.
Plate structure is a kind of important engineering compo- On the other hand, in Mindlin-Reissner (thick) plate the-
nents and has been widely used in many industries, such as ory [6, 7], the deflection 𝑤 and the rotations 𝜓𝑥 , 𝜓𝑦 are inde-
aerospace engineering, shipbuilding industry, and civil engi- pendently defined, so that the influences of the transverse
neering. To date, the finite element method is usually consid- shear strain can be included, and only 𝐶0 continuity is req-
ered as the most convenient and effective tool in analyses and uired when formulating the interpolation functions of kine-
designs of various plate structures [1–56]. The history of plate matics variables. Hence, the construction of thick plate ele-
bending elements can be traced back to the 1960s [1, 2]. Since ments is indeed easier than that of the thin plate elements
then, how to develop high-performance models has attracted [8], and more and more attention was paid to develop plate
a great deal of attentions from finite element researchers [57– bending elements based on the Mindlin-Reissner plate theory
87]. Among these elements, the most popular models are [88–136]. However, the low-order standard isoparametric
usually formulated by two theories: the Kirchhoff plate theory displacement-based plate elements without special treat-
and the Mindlin-Reissner plate theory. Most early researches ments only produce poor results in the thin plate case due
focused on the models following the classical Kirchhoff thin to the false shear strains which lead to the shear locking
plate theory, which can be found in related review paper [5]. phenomenon. This shear locking problem is primarily caused
However, because transverse shear deformation is neglected, by the inability to model the Kirchhoff-type constraints in
the Kirchhoff plate theory is only appropriate for modeling thin plate limits. On the discrete level, only if the trial func-
thin structures. Furthermore, since 𝐶1 continuity between tion space is rich enough, the element can possess good
adjacent elements is required, the construction procedures properties. Unfortunately, this is not an easy case to standard
of Kirchhoff plate elements are quite difficult and more low-order elements [9]. To overcome this difficulty, different
complicated. Actually, construction of 𝐶1 approximation for methods have been proposed, such as the reduced integration
2 Mathematical Problems in Engineering

[10, 11] and the selected reduced integration [12, 13]. In addi- In 1971, in order to eliminate the shear locking problem
tion to the shear locking problem, there are two other great existing in the Mindlin-Reissner plate elements, Zienkiewicz
numerical challenges in Mindlin-Reissner plate theory, that et al. [10] introduced the famous reduced integration scheme
is, the singularity caused by the plate obtuse corners and the which can drastically improve the element performance
edge effect caused by certain boundary conditions [14, 15]. by reducing the integration order for all stiffness matrix
Although these two do not pose great effects on the entire components. This work [10] was based on the element given
structure, they do complicate the numerical analysis. But, no by [17]. Almost at the same time, an analogous work was
enough attention has been paid to them. proposed by Pawsey and Clough [24]. Although the reduced
Through substantial attempts from scholars, various Min- integration method did not have theoretical explanations,
dlin-Reissner plate bending elements [137–188] are available it indeed was a significant improvement for plate bending
in numerous literatures. Furthermore, by using the higher- elements [25]. Another effective approach was the selective
order elasticity theories, some models based on the nonclas- reduced integration, whose validity had been subsequently
sical Mindlin-Reissner plate theories are proposed [189–191], demonstrated by Hughes and other scholars [12, 13, 19, 26]. Its
such as the modified couple stress theory [192, 193]. However, main idea was to split the strain energy into two parts: bend-
no one has been treated as the so-called “best” one. Thus, ing part and shear part. Lower order integration was used
how to choose a “right” one is quite puzzling to the FEM for the troublesome shear strain energy, while full integration
users. At the present stage, the major drawback in Mindlin- was employed for the bending energy. The applications of
Reissner plate elements is that the element’s performance is selective reduced integration may need some modifications in
highly sensitive to mesh distortion. How to develop a “shape- code procedures [27], so that the computational cost will be
free” element is still an open topic. The expression “shape- increased. Since then, these two reduced integration schemes
free” means that the element can always perform well regard- have been widely applied, helping eliminate or alleviate the
less of the mesh quality. In this paper, a review on the devel- shear locking phenomenon. Prathap and Somashekar [28]
opment of the Mindlin-Reissner plate elements is firstly proposed a vagarious strategy with (2 × 1) and (1 × 2)
proposed. Then, a promising “shape-free” Mindlin-Reissner Gauss integration, respectively, for the terms 𝛾𝑥𝑧 and 𝛾𝑦𝑧 . The
plate element method is briefly recommended. derived element QUAD4-CC was free of locking and had a
proper rank in rectangular forms. Unfortunately, this advan-
tage deteriorated when the element was not rectangular.
2. Developments of Mindlin-Reissner Although improved results can been obtained by using
Plate Elements reduced or selective reduced integration in most cases, these
methods cannot always ensure the absence of shear locking.
The first attempt to employ the Mindlin-Reissner plate theory Belytschko et al. [31] proposed a so-called mode decompo-
in finite element method was the 8-node isoparametric ele- sition approach combined with one-point quadrature, which
ment derived from the degenerated shell approach [17]. In can show improved performances compared to a straightfor-
early time, most Mindlin-Reissner plate elements were the ward application of reduced integration. However, it was still
displacement-based models. A common problem encoun- found to shear lock with certain mesh patterns. Furthermore,
tered was that these elements often gave poor results in thin there were even some cases that elements cannot be improved
plate limit if their element stiffness matrices were evaluated by them at all [29]. Moreover, the most noteworthy and fatal
using full integration schemes. This phenomenon is the well- problem was that reduced or selective reduced integration
known “shear locking” problem. The first explanation on often brought about spurious zero energy modes [32], which
the shear locking was presented by Zienkiewicz and Hinton will yield unreliable results under certain boundary condi-
[18]. They found that, with the use of a penalty function tions. An exception that possessed a correct rank and did not
formulation, the product of the shear stiffness matrix and the lock was the so-called “heterosis” element [26] which utilized
displacement vector should be zero when the thickness-span an 8-node interpolation for rotations and 9-node interpola-
ratio was sufficiently small. This discovery led to the develop- tion for deflections. In order to eliminate the rank deficiency,
ment of so-called “locking indicator” [11], which measured the stabilization method was proposed by Belytschko et al.
the singularity of an element stiffness matrix. Also based [33–36]. The essential ingredient of this method was to super-
on this work [18], Hughes et al. [12, 19] gave an alterna- impose a “stabilizing” stiffness matrix to the stiffness matrix
tive concept, “constraint index,” to predict locking behavior obtained by reduced integration. The most well-known one
in different finite element meshes. However, this index was the 𝛾-method initiated by Flanagan and Belytschko
often deduced an overly pessimistic assessment. Afterwards, [37], in which a vector 𝛾 orthogonal to displacement fields
Spilker and Munir [20, 21] proposed a modified version, was introduced. From the view of computational cost, this
called “rotational constraint index,” which can achieve better procedure seemed attractive and economical for constructing
correlations. In order to gain more complete understanding simple elements. However, additional researches were still
and better estimation of the shear locking, Averill and Reddy needed for understanding the physical meanings of the
[23] proposed another analytical technique verifying the roles stabilizing parameters more clearly [27].
that shear constraints play in thin plate. These constraints Another alternative approach to alleviate shear locking,
were expressed in terms of the nodal DOFs and then were named by “assumed natural strain (ANS)” method, was pro-
judged to be the proper Kirchhoff constraints or spurious posed by Hughes and Tezduyar [38] and MacNeal [39]. In
locking constraints. [38], Hughes and Tezduyar were the first to find that shear
Mathematical Problems in Engineering 3

locking can be avoided without losing important energy improve the approximated deflection fields by the rotational
modes. The main idea of ANS method was to define the trou- DOFs. In this method, one order higher polynomials can be
blesome shear strains independent of the approximation used for the deflection than rotations without adding addi-
of displacements. Then, these independent assumed strains tional element parameters. Thus, it can help meet the require-
were connected with the nodal displacements through the ments in thin plate limit that the rotations were equal to
strain-displacement relation calculated at certain discrete derivatives of the deflections. It is known that the linked
points. Finally, they were interpolated over the element by interpolation on its own cannot ensure free of shear locking,
using specific shape functions. This method had been proved unless some other techniques were simultaneously employed,
to be mathematically valid by Brezzi et al. [40], and the key such as bubble modes, selective/reduced integration, or oth-
to the success was related to the choices of these preselected ers. Even so, many elements were still developed based on the
points. After then, based on this concept, many models linked interpolation techniques [25, 75–84]. Besides, some
were successfully developed [41–45]. For instance, Tessler researchers started to study the relation between the linked
and Hughes [42, 43] proposed the quadrilateral and trian- interpolation elements and other models. For example, T3BL
gular plate elements, named as MIN4 and MIN3, in which was proved to be essentially the same as the MIN3 [87].
“anisoparametric” representations were used together with Recently, inspired by the higher-order linked interpolation
continuous transverse shear edge constraints. In their work, functions developed for the Timoshenko beam, Ribarić and
a concept of “finite-element-appropriate” shear correction Jelenić [80] found a distinct basis for developing plate ele-
factor, derived through multiplying the classical shear factor ments. Later, they [81] proposed two higher-order 9-node
with a factor relating to the element’s geometrical and mate- quadrilateral plate finite elements in which the interpolation
rial properties, was also proposed. Sze et al. [44] developed functions were expended with three bubble parameters for
a triangular element AST6, which had a favorable constraint keeping the polynomial completeness. Although the higher-
index of shear locking and optimized strains with respect to a order linked interpolation can make elements perform well in
linear pure bending field. Afterwards, they gave an improved distorted mesh, it indeed led to vast computational cost owing
model [45] in where the matrix inversion in original formu- to additional bubble degrees of freedom.
lations can be avoided. The hybrid/mixed approach was another way which can
Some variations of the ANS method were then presented, effectively and thoroughly eliminate the shear locking prob-
including the well-known mixed interpolated tensorial com- lem (see [20, 21, 32, 75–77, 88–118] and the references herein).
ponents (MITC) method proposed by Bathe et al. [40, 46– Lee and Pian [88] explained why shear locking appears in
49]. Their method consisted in interpolating the covariant the thin limit case and gave some solutions in hybrid/mixed
shear strain components 𝛾𝑥𝑧 and 𝛾𝑦𝑧 in a particular manner. models. To develop hybrid/mixed elements, various vari-
A series of MITC plate/shell elements were constructed for ational principles were available, including the principle
linear/nonlinear analysis [50–56], among which the 4-node of minimum complementary energy, the Hellinger-Reissner
element MITC4 [47] may be the most widely used one in variational principle, the Hu-Washizu variational principle,
commercial codes [51], although it experienced some slight and their modified forms. In the hybrid/mixed method,
locking and shear oscillation in distorted meshes. Based displacements or boundary displacement and stresses/strains
on MITC4, Kebari [57] proposed the one point integrated within the element were independently assumed. Thus, per-
version, in which the Taylor series expansion approach [52] formances of these hybrid/mixed elements were largely based
was employed to accommodate the linear variation of stress on the appropriate choice of parameters. However, the lack
within the element. of specific rules in a priori choosing the “best” stress com-
The discrete shear gap (DSG) method [58] was another bination may be a major drawback. A significant work was
scheme analogous to the ANS approach. The difference proposed by Malkus and Hughes [13]. They showed that there
between these two methods was that the lack of collocation was equivalence between mixed models and displacement
points makes the application of the DSG method indepen- models with reduced integration. After this work, a series
dent of the element’s order [59]. Thus, the DSG method was of effective hybrid/mixed elements were proposed, including
employed by many elements to eliminate the shear locking some models mentioned above. Spilker and Munir [20] devel-
[60–63]. oped a high-order hybrid-stress element with use of the 12-
Batoz et al. proposed the discrete Kirchhoff technique [29, node cubic serendipity shape functions and 36 stress param-
64, 65] for constructing thin plate elements. This “discrete” eters. This element had a favorable “rotational constraint
concept was subsequently extended to the thick plate ele- index” [21]. Saleeb and Chang [27] proposed a HMPL5 ele-
ments, and different types of models were proposed, such as ment with three bubble functions represented by a fifth inter-
the DRM element [66], the discrete Mindlin triangle (DMT) nal node. However, the use of internal node brought inconve-
element [67], the discrete shear triangular (DST) and discrete nience and seemed unpopular. Simo and Rifai [117] presented
shear quadrilateral (DSQ) elements [68–72], and the discrete a three-field mixed formulation in terms of displacements,
Kirchhoff–Mindlin elements [73, 74]. These “discrete” thick stresses, and an enhanced strain field. Since the stress inter-
plate elements can model thick plate well, while coinciding polation was assumed L2-orthogonal to the enhanced strain
with the DKT/DKQ element for the thin plate. interpolation, the stress field can be eliminated from the
In 1993, Zeinkiewicz et al. proposed the linked interpola- final formulations. Thus, it collapsed into a two-field mixed
tion method [75, 76], which has also been applied by other method. This method can be used to develop low-order
researchers later. The main thought of this concept was to elements with enhanced accuracy in coarse meshes. Ayad and
4 Mathematical Problems in Engineering

his cooperators proposed the mixed shear projected (MiSP) in form of area coordinates will not deteriorate in distorted
elements, including the stand bilinear models [99] and the meshes. Hence, the resulting element AC-MQ4 was quite ins-
high-order ones [113, 114]. This approach represented the ensitive to mesh distortion. When constructing the element,
transversal shear forces and shear strains in a particular man- the locking-free Timoshenko’s beam formulas were employed
ner: the shear forces were derived from the bending moments to help eliminate the shear-locking problem. Recently, this
using the equilibrium equations and the shear strains were technique has also been widely used in developing Mindlin-
defined in terms of the edge tangential strains. Brasile [25] Reissner plate elements [131–136].
constructed element TIP3, whose stress fields were assumed The smoothed finite element method (S-FEM), proposed
from a moment-shear uncoupled polynomial approximation by Liu et al. [137, 138], was also extended to Mindlin-Reissner
and then forced to satisfy some equilibrium conditions so plate elements. This method utilized the strain smoothing
that the minimum number of the stress parameters can be technique of mesh-free methods [139] to improve the accu-
obtained. de Miranda and Ubertini [100] also proposed a racy of standard FEM. When developing smoothed Mindlin-
self-equilibrium hybrid element. Particularly, its stresses were Reissner plate models, the locking-free curvature smoothing
expressed by uncoupled polynomial expansions in terms of formulation is mainly used. In S-FEM models, smoothing
skew coordinates [119]. Pereira and Freitas [115, 116] employed domains can be located inside the elements or cover parts
Legendre polynomials to express the resultants within the ele- of adjacent elements. Thus, based on different smoothing
ment domain and the deflections along boundaries. Because procedures, different types of S-FEM elements were derived,
of the orthogonality of the Legendre approximation, a highly including CS-FEM [51, 140], NS-FEM [61], and ES-FEM
sparse finite element solving system was derived. By com- [62, 141–143]. Nguyen-Thoi et al. [140] applied the cell-
bination of one-point integration and a stabilization matrix, based strain smoothing technique to modify the well-known
Gruttmann and Wagner [111] proposed a model whose stiff- element MIN3 [87] to formulate a new element CS-MIN3.
ness matrix can be analytically integrated, so that some com- In CS-FEM, the number of supporting nodes was the same
putational costs can be saved. Even though there were some as those in elements. Therefore, the bandwidth of stiffness
inherent drawbacks existing in hybrid/mixed method, such matrix in the CS-FEM was similar to the standard FEM. Ngu-
as the need of matrices inversion, it still inspired researchers yen-Xuan et al. [61] proposed a node-based smoothed model
to develop new types of novel hybrid/mixed models. (NS-FEM), in which the strain smoothing was associated
Recently, some scholars, mostly among mathematicians, with the nodes of the elements. This NS-FEM can provide
began to employ the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite ele- an upper bound solution in energy norm for the elasticity
ment methods [17] to design plate elements [120–126]. This problem [144]. By introducing the curvatures smoothing
DG method admitted the discontinuities in the element dis- technique into the well-known MITC4 [47] and incorporat-
crete space, leading to new types of conforming or noncon- ing stabilized conforming nodal integration, Nguyen-Xuan
forming elements. Brezzi and Marini [121] used nonconform- et al. [141] proposed the MISC models. These elements can
ing piecewise linear functions for both rotations and transver- provide more accurate results, especially in distorted meshes.
sal displacements and added internal degrees of freedom Furthermore, also based on the concept of S-FEM, Liu et al.
to make the element perform better. Later, Lovadina [123] [60, 145–147] proposed the alpha finite element method
proposed a simplified version by using piecewise constant (𝛼FEM), in which the element was enhanced by the addi-
shear stress approximation functions. Arnold et al. [120] tional averaged nodal strain terms with an adjustable param-
developed two DG Mindlin-Reissner plate element families: eter 𝛼, resulting in a properly softer stiffness formulation.
one was the fully discontinuous case and the other was the Based on the mechanism of shear locking phenomenon
case of continuous rotations and nonconforming deflections. and the potential functional of Mindlin-Reissner plate, Cai
Hansbo et al. [126, 127] also proposed a quadrilateral element et al. [150] extended the generalized mixed variational prin-
model with continuous displacements and discontinuous ciple (GMVP) [151], which was a type of parameterized vari-
rotations. In this model, the rotations had the same order as ational principles, to Mindlin-Reissner plate. In their models,
the parametric derivatives of the displacements in the para- splitting factors were introduced to adjust the shear potential
metric reference plane, and they obeyed the same transfor- and complementary energy components. Through this way,
mation law. Boesing et al. [125] developed an interior penalty the element stiffness matrix can be artificially changed, which
DG model. In their work, the a priori error analysis of DG can make the element free of shear locking and possess higher
methods was also presented. Although the discontinuous accuracy.
Galerkin method seems somewhat unfamiliar to traditional The so-called free formulation method, introduced in
FEM, it was clear that the DG technique can offer a different 1975 by Bergan and Hanssen [152], was a radically differ-
way to these problems difficult for a classical approach [120]. ent approach. Instead of various variational principles, this
Unlike that most quadrilateral elements were constructed method [152–157] was directly derived from the conditions
in Cartesian or isoparametric coordinates, Cen et al. [128] that the elements satisfy the requirements of the patch test
extended the quadrilateral area coordinate method [129, 130] and the rigid body motions. Such requirements can be
to formulate a new element AC-MQ4 by employing the greatly relaxed by slight modification of the coupling stiffness
general conforming theory [148, 149]. A distinct feature of between fundamental and higher-order displacement modes
this method was that the transformation relations between [152]. Thus, the shear deformations were only associated with
the area coordinates and Cartesian coordinates were always the higher modes and can be tackled in a special way [153,
linear, so that the order of the displacement fields expressed 154].
Mathematical Problems in Engineering 5

In addition to the methods mentioned above, there are alleviated at the expense of mathematical complexity or high
still many other models and methods proposed by numerous computational cost and no effective and succinct solutions
literatures [158–184]. But among them only a fraction of typ- are available. For this problem, a promising solution was
ical models can be briefly introduced here. Through an adap- proposed recently, that is, the hybrid displacement function
tive mesh-refinement method, Holzer et al. [160] proposed a (HDF) method [194] for Mindlin-Reissner plate element. The
model employing the enough higher-order interpolation for main characteristic of this method is to assume the stress
shape functions. Similar to the model given by [151], Arnold fields within element through the assumption of the dis-
and Brezzi [177] also developed a model containing a shear placement function 𝐹 [195], rather than directly assuming
energy splitting parameter. What is different was that this themselves. All variables of Mindlin-Reissner plate theory
parameter was used to determine how much shear energy will can be expressed by such displacement function 𝐹, and the
be exactly integrated. Suggestions for appropriately choosing derived resultants can satisfy all the governing equations.
such parameter were also presented by [178]. Similarly, Wang Furthermore, these solutions can degenerate into the ones of
et al. [171, 172] applied the combined hybrid method to design thin plate when the thickness is sufficiently small. The HDF
quadrilateral elements, which can make the system’s energy elements are free of shear locking and can perform well in the
optimal by adjusting the combined parameter. Polit et al. [179] severely distorted mesh, even when the mesh contains degen-
proposed an 8-node quadrilateral element, in which each erated triangle or concave quadrilateral. Here, the outline of
monomial term of the interpolation functions for the normal this method is introduced.
rotations was matched by the derivatives of its counterpart For a Mindlin-Reissner plate, the deflection 𝑤 and rota-
deflection. Zhou [176] took the linear combination of the tions 𝜓𝑥 , 𝜓𝑦 can be expressed by the displacement function 𝐹
mixed and displacement-based formulations to present a [195] as follows:
new variational formulation. Cheung and Chen extended
the refined nonconforming element method [161] to develop 𝐷 2
𝑤=𝐹− ∇ 𝐹,
Mindlin-Reissner plate elements [162, 163]. Duan and Liang 𝐶
[174] reformulated the classical mixed variational principle by 𝜕𝐹
relaxing the continuity of the transverse displacement while 𝜓𝑥 = , (1)
strengthening the normal continuity of the shear stresses. 𝜕𝑥
Pontaza and Reddy [175] proposed a formulation based on 𝜕𝐹
the least-squares variational principle, in which the high- 𝜓𝑦 = ,
𝜕𝑦
order nodal expansions and the full integration were used.
Maunder and de Almeida [170] proposed equilibrium models in which 𝐷 and 𝐶 are the bending and shear stiffness and
in which the stress fields were divided into hyperstatic part
and spurious kinematic part. Ming and Shi [173] provided a 𝐷∇2 ∇2 𝐹 = 𝑞. (2)
unified variational formulation for three different elements,
MIN4 [42], Q9 [183], and FMIN4 [184], and proved their 𝑞 in (2) denotes the transversely distributed load. Then,
optimal error bounds. Castellazzi and Krysl [164] proposed a by substituting (1) into the related governing equations of
new assumed-strain technique with use of the nodal integra- Mindlin-Reissner plate, the resultants R expressed as the
tion, in which the weighted residual method was employed to functional of displacement function 𝐹 are derived as follows:
weakly enforce the equilibrium equation and the kinematic
equation. Later, they [167] verified the insensitivity of this 𝑛
method to geometrical distortion in a variety of distorted ̃ (𝐹) ,
R = ∑R𝑖0 𝛽𝑖 + R∗ = D (3)
meshes. 𝑖=1

Other than these conventional models mentioned above,

there were some transition elements being proposed for the where R𝑖0 (𝑖 = 1 ∼ 𝑛) are the general solutions of resultants
compatible connection of nonmatching meshes [185–188]. and 𝛽𝑖 are the corresponding coefficients; R∗ is the particular
Sohn and Im [185] developed a quadrilateral model which part. The fundamental analytical solutions of displacement
can include an arbitrary number of additional nodes on each function 𝐹 and the corresponding solutions of the resultant
edge. Choi and Park [186, 187] proposed different types of forces have been listed in [194]. Then, substitution of these
transition plate bending elements for adaptive ℎ-refinement. solutions into the complementary energy functional of the
Sofuoglu and Gedikli [188] proposed a 5-node transition Mindlin-Reissner plate element yields
element by using the refined nonconforming method [161].
Generally, in order to develop a good element, more than Π𝑒𝐶 = Π𝑒∗ 𝑒∗
𝐶 + 𝑉𝐶
one technique mentioned above can be employed in a combi- 1
nation. After decades of development, the Mindlin-Reissner = ∬ D ̃ (𝐹) d𝑥 d𝑦
̃ (𝐹)T CD
2 𝐴𝑒 (4)
plate element has been in a rather mature status. However,
there are still two major deficiencies: (i) the performances of ̃ (𝐹)] d d𝑠, T
+ ∫ [LD
low-order elements will deteriorate as the meshes distort and 𝑆𝑒
(ii) the precision of stress is lower than that of displacement.
The former is the more important one, especially in the where Π𝑒∗
𝐶 is the complementary energy within the element
nonlinear analysis. At present, this problem was generally and 𝑉𝐶𝑒∗ is the complementary energy along the boundary.
6 Mathematical Problems in Engineering

Finally, by applying the principle of minimum complemen- References

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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests
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