A multilayered/sandwich triangular finite element applied to linear and non-linear analyses

In this paper, we focus on the geometrically non-linear behaviour of multilayered plates. For this purpose, a high order plate model is used which exactly ensures both the continuity conditions for displacements and transverse shear stresses at the interfaces between layers of a laminated structure, and the boundary conditions at the upper and lower surfaces of the plates. Furthermore, the transverse shear strain distributions are given by cosine functions and shear correction factors are not needed. Based on this refined plate model, a six node C1 conforming triangular finite element is developed using a displacement approach. The Argyris interpolation is used for transverse displacement and the Ganev interpolation is used for membrane displacements and transverse shear rotations. This choice avoids the transverse shear locking problem. Furthermore, the transverse normal stress can be deduced from equilibrium equations at the post-processing level and a linear variation with respect to the in-plane coordinates is obtained using these high degrees of interpolation polynomia. A set of linear and non-linear tests is presented in order to show the efficiency of this finite element. Keywords C1 finite element; Multilayered plate; Refined model; Linear analysis; Non-linear analysis; Transverse