6

THICK/THIN PLATES.
REISSNER-MINDLIN THEORY

6.1 INTRODUCTION
Kirchhoff plate elements studied in the previous chapter are restricted to
thin plate situations only (thickness/average side ≤ 0.10). Also the C 1
continuity requirement for Kirchhoff elements poses severe difficulties for
deriving a conforming deflection field. These problems can be overcome
by using the plate formulation due to Reissner [Re] and Mindlin [Mi]
presented in this chapter.
The so called Reissner-Mindlin plate theory assumes that the normals
to the plate do not remain orthogonal to the mid–plane after deformation,
thus allowing for transverse shear deformation effects. This assumption is
analogous to that made for the rotation of the transverse cross section in
Timoshenko beam theory (Chapter 2). This allows us to use C o continu-
ous elements. Unfortunately, some difficulties arise when Reissner-Mindlin
elements are used for thin plate situations due to the excessive influence
of the transverse shear deformation terms. The “shear locking” defect is
analogous to that found when Timoshenko beam elements are applied to
slender beams. Elimination of shear locking is possible via reduced in-
tegration, linked interpolations or assumed transverse shear strain fields,
similarly as described for beams in Chapter 2.
Reissner-Mindlin plate elements can be taken as the starting point for
deriving C o continuous thin plate elements by adequately constraining the
transverse shear deformation to be zero at selected element points. Some
of the so called Discrete-Kirchhoff (DK) plate elements are described.
A method for extending the basic rotation-free plate triangle described
in Section 5.8.2 to accounting for shear deformation effects is also outlined
in the last part of the chapter.

E. Oñate, Structural Analysis with the Finite Element Method. Linear Statics: 291
Volume 2: Beams, Plates and Shells, Lecture Notes on Numerical Methods
in Engineering and Sciences, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-8743-1_6,
© International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE), 2013
292 Thick/thin plates. Reissner-Mindlin theory

Fig. 6.1 Reissner-Mindlin plate theory. Sign convention for the displacements and
the rotations of the normal. For loading types see Figure 4.1.

Reissner-Mindlin plate theory is very adequate for studying composite

laminate plates for which shear deformation effects are important. The
derivation of finite elements for this type of structures is presented in the
next chapter.
Reissner-Mindlin plate theory can be readily extended to shell analysis.
The study of this and the following chapters is therefore recommended as
an introduction to the chapters dealing with shell structures.
The simplicity of Reissner-Mindlin plate elements and their versatility
for analysis of thick and thin plates with homogeneous and composite
material have contributed to their popularity for practical applications
(see references in chapters on plate analysis in [CMPW,Cr,HO,ZT2]).

6.2 REISSNER-MINDLIN PLATE THEORY

Reissner-Mindlin plate bending theory shares the first three assumptions
of Kirchhoff plate theory (Section 5.2.1). The fourth assumption on the
rotation of the normal is different and reads as follows:

4) A straight line normal to the undeformed middle plane remains straight

but not necessarily orthogonal to the middle plane after deformation
(Figure 6.1).

The reader will recognize the analogy of this assumption with that for
the rotation of the cross section in Timoshenko beams (Section 2.2). There
are in fact many common features between both plate and beam theories.