Analysis of composite plates through cell-based smoothed finite element and 4-noded mixed interpolation of tensorial components techniques

• Removal of shear locking.
• First time combination of CUF and cell-based SFEM with MITC technique.
• Excellent results for composite plates.

The static bending and the free vibration analysis of composite plates are performed with Carrera’s Unified Formulation (CUF). We combine the cell-based smoothed finite element method (CSFEM) and the 4-noded mixed interpolation of tensorial components approach (MITC4). The smoothing method is used for the approximation of the bending strains, whilst the mixed interpolation allows the calculation of the shear transverse stress in a different manner. With a few numerical examples, the accuracy and the efficiency of the approach is demonstrated. The insensitiveness to shear locking is also demonstrated.