A study of some triangular discrete Reissner–Mindlin plate and shell elements

A shell simultaneously supports membrane and plate bending actions, and both shear and membrane locking may occur. If the element is plane, bending and membrane effects are uncoupled, and the shell element is formed by the assembly of plate and membrane elements. This was proposed in the early sixties, but its success was hampered by the lack of good triangular plate elements. Shear locking has been the major problem, and it may be eliminated by using discrete Reissner–Mindlin models. In this paper, we used some discrete triangular plate elements to form flat shells. Membrane and shear locking are studied.