On a Four-Node Quadrilateral Plate for Laminated Composites

Abstract An assessment of the efficiency and convergence characteristics of a four-node quadrilateral plate finite element in the analysis of laminated composites is performed. The element, which is suitable for global response analysis, is developed in the framework of the strain gradient notation such that its modeling capabilities as well as modeling deficiencies can be physically interpreted by the analyst during the formulation process. Thus, shear locking typically encountered in four-noded plate elements is identified as caused by spurious terms which appear in the shear strain polynomi...