A new higher-order plate/shell element for dynamic analysis of flexible plate and shell with variable thickness (Q6116882)

Models of flexible plates/shells with variable thickness have many advantages, for example, such plates/shells can have high material utilization ratio, lightweight and so on. Traditional modeling and analysis of variable thickness plates/shells are mainly connected with lower-order finite elements, for which the locking problem exists. A new finite element with quadratic interpolation in the transverse direction for analysis of flexible plates or shells with variable thickness is developed in this paper. This new finite element employs an algebraic function, called the thickness function, to describe any thickness distribution of plates/shells. To verify convergence and accuracy of the new finite element, the numerical problem was solved and the results obtained are compared with those obtained by the software ANSYS. These results are in good agreement with those obtained by the traditional finite element method.