Nine-node quadrilateral plate element that can adapt to the curved model edges

What is it about?

We employ the linked interpolation concept to develop two higher-order 9-node quadrilateral plate finite elements with curved sides that pass the constant bending patch test for arbitrary node positions. The linked interpolation for the plate displacements is expanded with three bubble parameters to get polynomial completeness necessary to satisfy the patch test. In contrast to some other techniques, the elements developed in this way retain a symmetric stiffness matrix at a marginal computational expense at the element level. The new elements generated using this concept, are tested on several examples with curved sides or some other kind of geometric distortion.

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Why is it important?

The proposed plate element is versatile in mesh geometry forming and accurate in results even with coarse model meshes.

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