A new plate bending element for the analysis of thin plates of arbitrary shapes

It is well known that the isoparametric element has certain drawbacks when applied to thin plates subjected to bending. The specific problem which creeps up for such cases is known as the shear locking phenomenon which becomes more and more pronounced as the thickness of the plate reduces. Though this can be taken care of by techniques such as the reduced integration, problems still linger for very thin plates which occur in many practical structures. The mapping concept used in the formulation of the isoparametric element has been utilised in developing a new four-noded plate bending element. The shear deformation which is not important for the analysis for thin plates has not been considered and thus the disturbing feature of shear locking does not creep into the analysis, yet like the isoparametric element the new element is able to analyse plates having arbitrary shapes.