Finite

element
method
Prof. Jinwoo Lee

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 Plate Bending Element
12
Chapter Objectives
✓ To introduce basic concepts of plate bending
✓ To derive a common plate bending element stiffness matrix
✓ To present some plate element numerical comparisons
✓ To demonstrate some computer solutions for plate bending problems

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• The Plate Element
➢ The plate element is one of the
most useful structural elements.

➢ It is used to model and analyze

structures such as:
• Pressure vessels
• Chimney stacks
• Automobile parts

➢ Figure 12-1 shows finite

element models of a computer
case and a water tank modeled
using the plate bending
element.
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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
➢ A plate can be considered the two-dimensional extension of
a beam in simple bending.

➢ Both beams and plates support loads transverse or

perpendicular to their plane and through bending action.

➢ A plate is flat and resists bending about two axes and has a
twisting moment.

➢ We will consider the classical thin-plate theory or Kirchhoff

plate theory in our analysis.

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Basic Behavior of Geometry and Deformation
➢ Begin the derivation of the basic thin-plate equations
by considering the thin plate shown.
➢ The plate surfaces are at z = +− t/2, and its mid-surface
is at z = 0
➢ The assumed basic geometry of the plate is:
1. The plate thickness is much smaller than its in-plane
dimensions b and c.
2. The deflection w is much less than the thickness t.

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Kirchhoff Assumptions
➢ Consider a differential slice cut from the plate by planes
perpendicular to the x axis as shown in Figure 12-3(a).
➢ Loading q causes the plate to deform laterally or
upward in the z direction.

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Kirchhoff assumptions are as follows:
1. Normals remain normal. This implies that transverse shear strains γyz =
0 and γxz = 0. However, γxy does not equal 0; right angles in the plane of
the plate may not remain right angles after loading. The plate may twist
in the plane.

2. Thickness changes can be neglected and normals undergo no

extension. This means normal strain, εz = 0.

3. Normal stress σz has no effect on in-plane strains εx and εy in the

stress/strain equations and is considered negligible.

4. Membrane or in-plane forces are neglected here, and the plane stress
resistance can be superimposed later. That is, the in-plane deformations
in the x and y directions at the mid-surface are assumed to be zero.

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Kirchhoff Assumptions
➢ Based on the Kirchhoff assumptions, any point P in Figure 12-3
has displacement in the x direction due to a small rotation α of:

➢ Similiarly, the same point has displacement in the y direction of:

➢ The curvatures of the plate are then given as the rate of change of
the angular displacements of the normals and are defined as:

➢ The in-plane strain-displacement equations become:

➢ or

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Stress/Strain Relations
➢ Based on Kirchhoff’s third assumption, the plane stress equations
can be used to relate the in-plane stress to the in-plane strains for
an isotropic materials as:

➢ The in-plane normal stresses and shear stress are shown acting on
the edges of the plane in Figure 12-4(a).

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• (Cont.)
➢ These normal and shear stresses can be related to the bending
moments Mx and My and to the twisting moment Mxy acting along
the edges of the plate as shown in Figure 12-4 (b) as:

➢ The moments can be related to the curvatures from:

➢ where is called the bending rigidity of the

plate.

➢ The maximum magnitudes of the normal stresses on each edge of

the plate are located at the top or bottom at z = t/2.

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• (Cont.)
➢ The governing equilibrium differential equation of plate bending is
important in selecting the element displacement fields.

➢ With further manipulation, we obtain the governing partial

differential equation for an isotropic, thin-plate bending behavior as:

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 12.1 Basic Concepts of Plate Bending
• Potential Energy of a Plate

➢ The total potential energy of a plate is given by:

➢ The potential energy can be expressed in terms of the moments

and curvatures by:

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 12.2 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix
• Derivation of a Plate Bending Element Stiffness
Matrix
➢ For this element each node has 3 degrees of freedom: a transverse
displacement w in the z direction, a rotation θx about the x axis, and
a rotation θy about the y axis

➢ The nodal displacement matrix at node i is given by:

➢ where the rotations are related to the transverse displacement by:

➢ The total element displacement matrix is now given by:

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 12.2 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix
• Select the Displacement Function
➢ We select a 12-term polynomial in x and y as:

➢ The constants a1 through a12 can be determined by expressing the

12 simultaneous equations linking the values of w and its slopes at
the nodes when the coordinates take up their appropriate values.

➢ First, write:

➢ or in matrix form as:

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 12.2 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix
• (Cont.)
➢ Next, evaluate at each node point as follows:

➢ or in compact matrix form as:

➢ Therefore, the constants (a’s) can be solved for by:

➢ finally express as:

➢ or:
where is the 3 X 12 shape function matrix. A specific form
is given in Reference [9].

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 12.2 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix
• Define the Strain-Displacement and Stress-Strain
Relationships
➢ The curvature matrix is:

➢ in matrix form:
➢ where [Q] is the 3 X 12 coefficient matrix multiplied by a’s
➢ Using the equation for {a} we can express as:
➢ where [B] is:
➢ The moment-curvature matrix for a plate is given by:

where [D] is

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 12.2 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix
• The Plate Element Stiffness Matrix
➢ The stiffness matrix is given by the usual form as:

➢ The stiffness matrix is of order 12 X 12. A specific expression for [k]

is given in References [4] and [5]
➢ The surface force matrix due to distributed loading q acting per unit
area in the z direction is obtained using the standard equation:

➢ For a uniform load q acting over the surface of an element of

dimensions 2b X 2c yields the forces and moments at node i as:

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 12.2 Derivation of Stiffness Matrix
• (Cont.)
➢ The element equations are given by:

➢ The rest of the steps, including assembling the global equations,

applying boundary conditions, and solving the equations for the
nodal displacements and slopes, follow the standard procedures
introduced in previous chapters.

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 12.3 Numerical Comparisons
• Numerical Comparisons
➢ Figure 12-6 shows a
number of plate element
formulations results for a
square plate simply
supported all around and
subjected to a concentrated
vertical load applied at the
center of the plate.

➢ The results illustrate the

upper and lower bound
solution behavior and
demonstrate the
convergence of solution for
various plate element
formulations.
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 12.3 Numerical Comparisons
• (Cont.)
➢ Figure 12-7 to the right shows
comparisons of triangular
plate formulations for the
same centrally loaded simply
supported plate used to
compare quadrilateral element
formulations.

➢ We can observe a number of

different formulations with
results that converge from
above and below.

➢ Some of these elements

produce better results than
others.
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 12.3 Numerical Comparisons
• (Cont.)
➢ Figure 12-8 shows resulted for some selected Mindlin plate theory
elements. Mindlin plate elements account for bending deformation
and for transverse shear deformation.
➢ For more on Mindlin plate theory see reference [6]. The hesterosis
element [10] is the best performing element in the figure.

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 12.4 Computer Solutions
• E.X. 12.1
➢ Example 12.1 solves for the maximum vertical deflection of the
plate which is fixed along all four edges and subjected to a
concentrated load at its center as shown in Figure 12-9.

445 N

508 mm

2.5 mm

508 mm
 12.4 Computer Solutions
• Plate Modeling in ABAQUS
➢ Shell elements are used to model structures in which one
dimension, the thickness, is significantly smaller than the
other dimensions.
• Conventional shell elements use this condition to discretize a body
by defining the geometry at a reference surface.
• In this case the thickness is defined through the section property
definition.
• Conventional shell elements have displacement and rotational
degrees of freedom.
• The “top” surface of a conventional shell element is the surface in
the positive normal direction and is referred to as the positive
(SPOS) face for contact definition.
• The “bottom” surface is in the negative direction along the normal
and is referred to as the negative (SNEG) face for contact
definition.
* https://engineering.purdue.edu/~ahvarma/CE595/Index.html
 12.4 Computer Solutions
• (Cont.)
• Positive and negative are also used to designate top and bottom
surfaces when specifying offsets of the reference surface from the
shell's midsurface.
• The positive normal direction defines the convention for pressure
load application and output of quantities that vary through the
thickness of the shell.
 12.4 Computer Solutions
• (Cont.)
➢ Numbering of section points through the shell thickness.
• For a homogeneous section the total number of section points is
defined by the number of integration points through the thickness

• For general shell sections, output can be obtained at three section

points. Section point 1 is always on the bottom surface of the shell.

• For shell sections integrated during the analysis, you can define
the number of integration points through the thickness. The default
is five for Simpson's rule and three for Gauss quadrature.

• For shell sections integrated during the analysis, section point 1 is

exactly on the bottom surface of the shell if Simpson's rule is used,
and it is the point that is closest to the bottom surface if Gauss
quadrature is used.
 12.4 Computer Solutions
• (Cont.)
➢ Default output points
• The default output points through the thickness are on the bottom
and top surfaces of the shell section.
• For example, if five integration points are used through a single
layer shell, output will be provided for section points 1 (bottom) and
5 (top).
 12.4 Computer Solutions
• (Cont.)
➢ Elements
• STRI3 - triangular 3-node element for Kirchhoff thin plate bending
• S4R5 - quadrilateral 4-node element for Kirchoff thin plate bending
with 5 d.o.f. per node.
• S8R - quadrilateral 8-node element for Mindlin thick plate bending
with 6 d.o.f per node.
• S4 - quadrilateral general purpose finite element with finite strains.

• If you see a ‘5’ in the element name - it had 5 d.o.f. per node and
will be a thin shell element.
Part Module
Property Module
Instance Module
Step Module
Load Module
Mesh Module – Mesh Controls
Mesh Module – Global Seeds
Mesh Module – Element Type
Mesh Module – Element Type
Results
Results