FREE VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF MINDLIN PLATES USING HETEROSIS FINITE ELEMENTS

Abstract

The Heterosis element is a 9-node quadrilateral) isoparametric Mindlin plate element which employs Serendipity shape functions for the transverse displacement and Lagrange shape functions for rotations. Free vibration analysis of thin and moderately thick plates have been carried out using Heterosis elements. Square and rectangular plates of different length to thickness ratios with simply supported boundary conditions have been studied. The performance of the Heterosis element has been compared with exact solutions based on Mindlin's thick plate theory and 8-node Serendipity, 9-node Lagrange, and 9-node hierarchical Heterosis elerr nts. The Heterosis element demonstrates good accuracy for dynamic analysis of thin and moderately thick plates with reduced, selective, and fill integrations.