Isogeometric collocation methods for the Reissner–Mindlin plate problem

• Isogeometric collocation methods for Reissner–Mindlin plate problems are proposed for the first time.
• Locking-free primal and mixed formulations are proposed.
• Numerical tests show the efficiency of the methods.

Within the general framework of isogeometric methods, collocation schemes have been recently proposed as a viable and promising low-cost alternative to standard isogeometric Galerkin approaches. In this paper, isogeometric collocation methods for the numerical approximation of Reissner–Mindlin plate problems are proposed for the first time. Locking-free primal and mixed formulations are herein considered, and the potential of isogeometric collocation as a geometrically flexible and computationally efficient simulation tool for shear deformable plates is shown through the solution of several numerical tests.