Nonconforming locking-free finite elements for Reissner–Mindlin plates Original Research Article

We prove optimal error estimates in L2 for a nonconforming finite element for Reissner–Mindlin plates recently introduced in [C. Lovadina, A low-order nonconforming finite element for Reissner–Mindlin plates, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 42 (2005) 2688–2705]. Moreover, we present numerical experiments using this element and other two nonconforming elements analyzed in [F. Brezzi, L.D. Marini, A nonconforming element for the Reissner–Mindlin plate, Comput. Struct. 81 (2003) 515–522].