An improved discrete Kirchhoff triangular element for bending, vibration and buckling analyses

In this paper, an improved triangular discrete Kirchhoff thin plate element IMDKT is introduced for bending, vibration and buckling analysis. In the case of bending analysis, new boundary displacements coupled with a correction factor are introduced in the proposed element for improving the accuracy. As for vibration and buckling analyses, the combined mass and combined geometric stiffness matrices are employed to improve the calculations of natural frequency and buckling load, respectively. Several numerical examples have been used to illustrate the versatility and potential accuracy of the present methods. A comparison between the proposed and some existing elements shows that the former is superior to the latter for thin plate bending, vibration and buckling analyses.