The addition of transverse shear flexibility to triangular thin plate elements

A method is described for incorporating shear flexibility into existing three-node triangular thin plate elements with particular relevance to finite element templates. When the parent thin plate elements satisfy some necessary conditions the resulting shear flexible elements have correct rank and are free of shear locking. Numerical results indicate that the convergence characteristics of the shear flexible elements are similar to those of the parent thin plate elements.

► Shows a method for adding shear flexibility to three-node triangular thin plate elements.
► The method is particularly useful for finite element templates.
► The shear flexible elements have correct rank and are free of shear locking.
► Numerical results indicate uniform convergence for both thick and thin elements.