m.

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ELI
JOURNAL OF
COMPUTATIONAL AND
APPLIED MATHEMATICS

ELSEVIER Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

A simple four-node quadrilateral finite element for plates

Wilfried B. K&zig a,*, Jian-Wu Zhang b
a Institute for Statics & Dynamics, Ruhr University, D-44780 Bochum, Germany
b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China

Received 14 May 1992; revised 22 December 1992

Abstract

A simple and accurate four-node quadrilateral finite element based on the Mindlin plate theory and Kirchhoff
constraints is presented for general thin plate bending applications. The derivation of the element stiffness
properties is straightforward, starting with a specified eight-node interpolation; usual discrete Kirchhoff (DK)
constraints are employed to constrain out the four midside nodes of the element. The present resulting DK element
passes patch tests with elements of arbitrary and even highly distorted mesh types. Numerical studies of the element
convergence behaviours are undertaken for various plate bending problems so far investigated. It is indicated from
comparative examples that fairly good convergence characteristics have been achieved.

Key words: Plate theory; Mindlin-Reissner theory with discrete Kirchhoff constraints; Finite-element method

1. Introduction

The Mindlin-Reissner theory based finite elements lock or become overstiff in thin plate
limit when they are used to model plate structures. The locking phenomenon arises due to
incompatible deformation modes introduced in the independent interpolation for transverse
and rotational displacements under the Kirchhoff shear constraint. Much attention has been
focused in the past decades on investigation of shear locking and related numerical difficulties.
Particular approaches such as reduced/selective integration and kinematic mode control for
alleviating these problems may be found in [1,4,9,15,16].
With regard to the inconsistency of Kirchhoff modes there has been considerable effort in
the development of improved quadrilateral finite elements based on the Mindlin plate theory
for bending analysis of thin plates. Hughes and Tezduyar [lo] developed a quadrilateral
element using bilinear Lagrangian functions for nodal rotational displacements. Four- and
nine-node quadrilateral elements were proposed in [3,8], both applying substitutive transverse

* Corresponding author.

0377-0427/94/$07.00 0 1994 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDI 0377.0427(93)E0118-6
362 WB. K&zig, J.-W. Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

Table 1
Element nodal pattern, interpolation and isoparametric transformation
Nodal pattern Eight-node interpolation scheme
Virgin element Corner nodes Midside nodes

Nl= $(l- [)(l- 77) N5 = ;(l - &*)(l- 77)

rl

l-b-
4 3
I N2=+(1+(X1-77) N6=+(1+[)(l-772)
E
0
6 N3 = +(l+ 5X1 + 77) N, = ;O - (*)(l+ T/)

,I* N, = +(l- [)(l- T/*>

Final element Nodal degrees of freedom

u;,wf,i = 1, 2, 3, 4 u;, wt, i = 5, 6, 7, 8

Transformed with Eliminated by

respect to the corner means of the
nodal shape functions constraint matrix

shear strains to avoid locking consequences. These elements are efficient and capable of
modelling plates with inclusion of transverse shear deformations. On the other hand, the shear
deformations may be considered as negligible in most plate applications, so that the Kirchhoff
constraints may be imposed at a number of discrete points in the Mindlin theory based finite
elements. Crisfield [6] derived a four-node quadrilateral element using discrete Kirchhoff
constraints and a nine-node interpolator-y pattern for both transverse and rotational displace-
ments. Recently, a four-node rectangular element was worked out by the authors [ll] proposing
a more rigorous kinematic constraint of the discrete Kirchhoff type and using an eight-node
interpolation for element independent displacements. This element formulation has resulted in
exact satisfaction of the real Kirchhoff shear constraints at just 2 X 2 Gaussian integration
points and the improved element bending performance has been quite similar to real Kirchhoff
elements derived in [5], using Hermite polynomials. The element however has the shortcoming
that it works well only in a rectangular coordinate system and is relatively sensitive to shape
distortion.
In this research a simple quadrilateral finite element for general thin plates is presented by
specifying an eight-node interpolation, as may be seen in Table 1. Unlike Crisfield’s element,
the present one does not include the central node so that it becomes convenient to impose
usual Kirchhoff shear constraints on four boundaries without additional tricky treatment to
constrain out the central node. Due to simplicity of the interpolation, the constraint equations
required for elimination of all twelve midside nodal redundancies are derived in explicit
algebraic form. The element appears finally to be four-corner noded, and the stiffness
 WE. K&zig, J.-W Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373 363

properties of the quadrilateral element are formulated according to isoparametric transforma-

tions with respect to four-corner nodal shape functions.
The element passes patch tests with a group of shape distorted elements and is found
insensitive to even highly irregular configuration of the element. Intensive numerical investiga-
tions are performed to the element convergence characteristics for various plates. Comparisons
are made of the present results with corresponding theoretical and numerical predictions and
fairly good convergence characteristics have been achieved.

2. Fundamentals

Derivation of the element stiffness matrix starts with the usual pair of discrete Kirchhoff
constraints: (1) the tangential transverse shear strain, though nonvanishing, should be inte-
grated to zero along a line specified in the element; (2) the rotational displacement normal to
the line, though nonmatching with its relative slope of the transverse displacement, should vary
linearly along the line. As known from previous DK elements, imposing shear constraints (1)
and (2) may yield three kinematic constraint equations that are sufficient to eliminate three
midside nodal redundancies. Since the element, as shown in Fig. 1, has four midside nodes, it is
natural to specify four-element boundaries as side lines on which twelve midside nodal
redundancies are intended to be eliminated.
As transverse shear strains approach zero under the DK constraints, the total potential
energy is simplified to be of the form

@= 1/ mahap dA - _/j 3~3 dA -

/s
(n3u3 +l’?‘fK,) dS,
A

where and ~~~ are, respectively, components of bending stress and strain tensors, and p3,
map

u37 n3, maand K, are components of lateral pressure, transverse displacement, edgewise
traction and moment and boundary normal rotation vectors, respectively. Note that unless
otherwise stated, Greek sub- and superscripts vary in the range between 1 and 2 and
conventions of dummy summation and other operations of tensors are implied.

Fig. 1. The element nodal pattern.

364 W.B. Kriitzig, J.-W. Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

Fig. 2. Rotational displacements.

For convenience the rotational difference vector W, as depicted in Fig. 2, is used throughout
the paper. Components of w are related to corresponding ones of the normal rotation vector o
through a reciprocal transformation of the form
w, = EapWP, (2)
in which lnP are components of the unit reciprocal tensor. The position of any point located in
the plate after deformation can be described by means of transverse and rotational displace-
ments, that is,
u; = 03w,, u; = u3. (3)
Accordingly, components of the bending strain tensor and shear strain vector may be expressed
by neglecting nonlinear terms [2,7]
K ap = +%,p
2 + y3,cA (4)

ya = w, + +a + 0, for thin plate limit. (5)

If homogeneous isotropic materials are considered, the constitutive equation can be written in
tensorial notation:
m’y6 = B&AK
PA’ (6)

in which BaPph are components of the bending rigidity tensor; they are expressible in terms of
Young’s modulus E and Poisson’s ratio V:

B1111 = B2222 =
Et3
B1122 = B2211 = &111, B’212 = (1 _ +‘l’l.
12(1 - V”) ’

3. Element stiffness matrix and load vector

For imposing the DK constraints, the original element nodal pattern is composed of four
corner and four midside nodes. If appropriate shape functions are used, the displacement field
of the element can be presented in terms of nodal degrees of freedom
u3 = u3iVi, w, = WaiVi, (7)
 W.B. Kr;itzig, J.-W. Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373 365

where vi are components of the generalized nodal displacement vector u and i varies from 1 to
the number of the original nodal unknowns. Vector u contains 3 X 8 nodal variables and can be
divided into two nodal displacement vectors for corner and midside nodes:

B = (Vk}= (!A\, w;,w;,.. .) u;,w;,wz”)‘, (8)

ti = {zJk}= (L& w;,w;,... u;,w;,W;)= )
7 (9)
where k may range from 1 to 12 and vk and 5, signify components of corner and midside nodal
displacement vectors. As in the Mindlin plate theory, components of the bending strain tensor
(4) are obtained by differentiation of components w, in (7) and may be further expressed in
terms of nodal variables:

K ffp = K &Vi, K,pi = ‘Cwa,pi

2 + wp,mi)* (10)

Because the curvature strain tensor (10) is set in rectilinear coordinates, it is required for the
quadrilateral element to establish a one-to-one mapping to relate with derivatives of shape
functions of rotational displacements in natural coordinates W,,pi, that is,

Wa pi = TpyiTa,yi 7 (11)
where TaYPare components of the inverse Jacobian. Components of the Jacobian transforma-
tion and its inverse tensors may be written in matrix form as
\
I --a# ao* ao2
--
ao*

J= ag at 7 T=-
det J
1 a17 at
(12)
a#
--
ae*
-- a@ a&
~
\ a77 a77I a77 at
Note that to constrain out four midside nodes, the coordinate system 8” is expressed according
to isoparametric principles by shape functions in natural coordinates with respect to four
corner nodes, as may be seen in Table 1.
If (10) is directly applied to form the element stiffness properties, in general, locking
behaviour will take place in thin plate situation. This is simply due to the fact that for the
independent interpolation scheme, the transverse displacement does not match in order of
differentiation with the two rotational displacements. An approach to relax the shear con-
straints (5) is to use the discrete Kirchhoff constraints discussed before. It is assumed in
advance that components of the constraint matrix c formed by twelve constraint equations are
so derived that the midside nodal variables can be expressed in terms of corner nodal ones as

r;,=c,&, k,l=l,..., 12. (13)

Insertion of (13) into (10) leads to
*
K
a0
=K afik 'k 7 K,pk = ‘ayP
+ &31clk 7 (14)
366 W.B. Kriitzig, J.-W Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

where zuPk are components of the modified bending strain (curvature) tensor. Using (6),
components of the bending stress tensor can be further written in terms of corner nodal
variables as

(15)
Substituting (14) and (15) into (1) and using Gaussian quadrature, components of the stiffness
matrix and load vector can be easily computed through

(16)

q; = f ( P3+&Ws2Ae + E (n3+k + m%,k),&Le, (17)

s=l t=1

in which W, and R, are, respectively, weighting coefficients of the two- and one-dimensional
Gaussian quadratures, A” is the element midplane area, L” the length of the traction line of
the element, and required Gaussian integration points N = 4, M = 3.

4. Kinematic constraint matrix

It is observed from (5) that normal rotations are related kinematically with corresponding
derivatives of the transverse displacement. Eq. (51 implies the satisfaction of the real Kirchhoff
condition since shear strains become infinitely small when the plate side to thickness ratio
approaches infinity. In the Mindlin theory based finite-element formulation, however, this
constraint is no longer satisfied uniformly because of the independent interpolation scheme. By
making use of shape functions given in Table 1, components of the shear strain vector (5) can
be written in terms of nodal variables as usual as
y, = N$vJ + N&,u;, i summed. (IS)
As mentioned in the previous section, imposition of the pair of DK constraints on each of the
element boundaries may yield three constraint equations. It is therefore sufficient to carry out
this on S, just for instance. As shown in Fig. 2, tangential shear strain on S, is reduced by
noting 17= 0 to yield

Yrls, = a0 + a15 + %C2. (19)

Obviously the tangential shear strain is quadratic and constants of the above polynomial are
1
a, = w,5t; + F(U: -+
1

4
a, = - KU: + i(w,2 - wi)tL, (20)
1

a2 = -w,‘t; + gw; + w,2)t&

 WB. K&zig, J.-W Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373 361

in which ti are components of the tangential unit vector t’ of S, for coordinate transformation
with respect to the rectilinear system W, and hi is the length of S,. According to the first DK
constraint, setting yi = 0 at two Gauss points on S, leads to a couple of constraint equations of
the form
a, = 0, a, + +a* = 0. (21)
By substituting (20) into (21) the constraints may be further presented as follows:
u; = $h,( w,” - wgt;, (22)

w,5t; = -gw; + w;p; - &: - ug.

1
(23)
By tb, components of the normal unit vector n’ of S, can be defined as
nt, = captj. (24)
The second DK constraint means that the midside node on S, should not affect the rotation
normal to S, due to its quadratic variation. Thus, the auxiliary constraint equation is obtained
and expressed as
w5n1
01a =o * (25)
By noting t,$f,= 0, Eqs. (23) and (25) can be easily solved so that the midside nodal rotations
on S, are expressible in terms of corner nodal unknowns

w:= fn;t;(w; + wa’)+ ;

1
qu:-u:)’
n

w;= - ;n:t;(w; + wa’)- & n:(u; - ug. (27)

1

Similarly, the nine other constraint equations may be derived by imposing the two DK shear
constraints on S,, S, and S,, respectively. As a result, a total of twelve midside nodal variables
are thus connected with twelve corner nodal ones by means of the constraint matrix c,
components of which are determined in the above way. As readily seen in (13) and (141, twelve
midside nodal redundancies can be solely eliminated by the constraint matrix. After four
midside nodes are constrained out, the quadrilateral element finally appears to be four-noded.
The numerical processing of this for midside nodes condensation is carried out at element level
and in this way a small space is needed in formulating the element arrays as in four-node
bilinear bending elements. The element named DKQ4 has been implemented within the
general-purpose structural analysis program FEMAS.

5. The patch tests

If a bending element is able to represent rigid-body and constant-curvature modes, the

element is regarded as a convergent one. In the present formulation three rigid-body modes are
found as they are sustained in Lagrangian bilinear functions in connection with four corner
368 WB. Kriitzig, J.-W. Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

Fig. 3. A square plate with a patch of five elements.

nodes. To examine constant strain modes, patch tests are performed on a square plate with
meshes of arbitrary quadrilateral elements of the type shown in Fig. 3. The square plate is
rigidly clamped on the left-hand edge and complete free on the other edges. The patch of
elements is subjected to either tip bending moment or tip line load of constant intensity and the
results indicate that the patch tests are passed. For testing constant twist curvature, the plate is
supported at three corners and a point load is applied at the fourth corner. It is shown that the
patch test is also passed.
A numerical study of bending behaviour of a cantilever plate is presented to test sensitivity
of the element to mesh distortion. The cantilever with mesh patterns of two elements shown in
Fig. 4 is subjected to a tip bending moment of constant intensity. In both cases of the meshes,
results obtained by the finite-element analysis for the transverse displacement at the tip end are
in very close agreement with the Timoshenko beam solution.

6. Convergence studies

The element behaviours are investigated in bending of plates of various shapes such as
triangular, skewed, rhombic and circular plates to demonstrate efficiency and convergence
characteristics of the element.
An equilateral triangular plate with meshes of the type shown in Fig. 5 is simply supported
along all edges. Two loadings acting on the plate are uniform lateral pressure and distributed
edge moments. The results for central deflection and maximum bending moments are tabulated
in Table 2. The finite-element predictions computed for bending moments at the centroid, one

Fig. 4. A cantilever plate with regular and irregular mesh idealizations.

 W.B. K&zig, .I.- W. Zhang / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (I 994) 361-373 369

Fig. 5. An equilateral triangular plate and mesh idealization.

Table 2
Convergence characteristics of maximum deflection and bending moments for all edges simply supported equilateral
triangular plates (Y = 0.3)
Number of Uniform lateral pressure q Distributed edge moment M,
elements D D
U3c 10204,,, /qa’) a U3c Mm,, /M, b
N,r - 103 -lo2
qa4 Centroid NGP M, a2 Corner NGP

3 0.9216 3.9387 1.7576 4.5581 1.1841 1.0749

9 0.9518 2.8424 2.0562 3.8441 1.2711 1.1001
18 1.0120 2.7709 2.3043 3.7974 1.2996 1.2594
33 1.0207 2.5651 2.3316 3.7707 1.3113 1.2820

Exact solution 1.0288 2.4074 3.7037 1.3500

a Values computed at the centroid.b Values computed at one corner.

corner and nearest Gauss points (NGP) are all provided. In comparison with Woinowsky-Krieger
solutions [14], the element possesses a rapid convergence with the mesh refinement.
A Razzaque’s 60” skew plate is now considered for convergence study. This plate is simply
supported on two opposite edges and free on the other two edges and subjected to uniform
lateral pressure, as shown in Fig. 6. The 16 X 16 FDM solutions by Razzaque [13] for deflection
and bending moment at the centre of the plate act as standard units, that is, u3c = 0.007945
qa4/D and M22 = 0.09589 qa2. It is noticed that the present finite-element results are
produced by imposition of two boundary conditions, just support (u3 = 0, JS for short) and
simple support (u3 = 0 and w2 = 0, SS for short). Convergence characteristics for the plate
modelled by the present element are illustrated for transverse displacement and bending

supported
Fig. 6. A Razzaque 60” skew plate ( x represents nearest Gauss point).
370 W.B. Kriitzig, J.-W. Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

a) ---Present

0.8
4 16 36 64Nel 4 16 36 64 L 16 36 64Nel 4 16 36 64

Fig. 7. Convergence characteristics for the skew plate, results (- ) at central nodal point and (- - - - - -) at nearest
Gauss point are normalized with respect to the Razzaque finite-difference solution; (a) opposite edges SS; (b)
opposite edges JS.

Fig. 8. A Morley 30” rhombic plate (X represents nearest Gauss point).

moment in Fig. 7 with the mesh idealizations uniformly refined in both skewed coordinate
directions. Comparisons are also made with some finite-element solutions and have shown that
the element performs better than the one of [lo] and reasonably close to the one of [6] in
deflection and bending. It is surprisingly noted that the results for bending moments computed
at the central nodal point approach exact values with excellent convergence characteristics.
A Morley’s 30” rhombic plate, shown in Fig. 8, is simply supported at all edges and loaded by
uniform lateral pressure. To the problem associated with an obtuse corner singularity, a series
solution is provided by Morley [12], using a least-square procedure. In finite-element analysis of
plates, the problem is a numerically difficult one and Mindlin plate elements involving reduced
or selective integration often fail to yield monotonic results. The plate is represented by mesh
idealizations of elements uniformly increased in both skewed coordinate directions. For the

‘~~e,~~~~
‘4 16 Mp~64 4 16 36%64 4 16 36M64

Fig. 9. Convergence characteristics for the rhombic plate with SS edges, results (- ) at central nodal point and
(- - - - - -) at nearest Gauss point are normalized with respect to the Morley series solution.
 W B. Kriitzig, J.-W. Zhang / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (I 994) 361-373 371

Fig. 10. A quadrant of circular plates and mesh idealizations.

purpose of comparison, Morley’s solutions for deflection and principal bending moments at the
centroid are treated as standard units, namely, ug, = 4.08 * lo4 qa4/D, MC,,, = 0.019 1 qa2 and
M = 0.010 8 qa2. The convergence characteristics with mesh refinement are illustrated in Fig.
9 &! the plate and compared with the elements of [6,10]. It is observed from comparisons that
the element behaves very well and even better than the others in coarse meshes in predicting
bending moments at nearest Gauss points.
Thin circular plates with simply supported (SS) and clamped (CL) edges under uniform
lateral pressure and central point load are considered here. Due to symmetry of the geometry
and loading, only a quadrant of the plate is taken and represented by a series of mesh
idealizations of the type shown in Fig. 10. The convergence characteristics are demonstrated in
Fig. 11 for circular plates with the edge simply supported and in Fig. 12 for circular plates with

-.- Crisfield

1.0

--.-Hughes 8 Tezduyur

o~8+7%I,L----’
3 7 12 7 12 27

Fig. 11. Convergence characteristics for circular plates with SS boundary, deflection ( -) at central nodal point is
normalized by the thin plate theory; (a) uniform pressure; (b) point load.

3 7 12 27Nel 3 7 12 27

Fig. 12. Convergence characteristics for circular plates with CL boundary, deflection ( -) at central nodal point
is normalized by the thin plate theory; (a) uniform pressure; (b) point load.
372 W.B. K&zig, J.-W. Zhang/Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 50 (1994) 361-373

27% 3 7 12 27

Fig. 13. Convergence characteristics for the circular plates under uniform pressure, moments (- ) at central
nodal point and (- - - - - -) at nearest Gauss point are normalized by the thin plate theory; (a) SS boundary; (b) CL
boundary.

the edge rigidly clamped. Results by the finite-element analysis are compared with closed-form
solutions [14] and other FEM predictions [6,8]. From Figs. 11-13 the element behaviours of
convergence for the circular plates under uniform lateral pressure are somewhat better than
both the others, while deflections obtained by Crisfield’s element in the case of the plates
under central point load approach closed-form solutions at the best rate of convergence.

7. Concluding remarks

In this paper a four-node quadrilateral discrete Kirchhoff finite element is proposed for thin
plate bending analysis by employing an eight-node interpolation scheme. This Mindlin type
element is formulated by incorporating elimination of midside nodal redundancies with usual
discrete Kirchhoff kinematic constraints imposed for avoiding shear locking and related
numerical difficulties in thin plate situation. No complicated DK shear constraint is involved in
the derivation of the element stiffness properties, so that inversion and additional operations of
matrices at the element level are not necessary. The resulting kinematic constraint matrix is of
explicit algebraic form.
In comparison with other DK plate elements existing in the literature, the present finite-ele-
ment formulation is by far the simplest, but results in proper bending stiffness properties of
quadratic accuracy. The element passes standard patch tests and is also capable of modelling
plates with meshes of highly distorted pattern. Numerical examples indicate that the element
behaves well in bending with fairly good convergence characteristics. In general, this element is
demonstrated to possess bending performance quite similar to the Crisfield element and better
than the Hughes and Tezduyar element, the advantage of which is the capability of represent-
ing plates counting for transverse shear deformations.

Acknowledgements

The second author likes to take this opportunity for expressing grateful appreciation to the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for awarding him an AvH research fellowship, also to the
Institute for Statics and Dynamics, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, for providing him with
working facilities.
 W.B. Kriitzig,J.-W. Zhang /Journal of Computationaland Applied Mathematics50 (1994) 361-373 373

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