Abstract: A new effective approach has been proposed to formulate thin plate element by using the similarity theory between plane elasticity and plate bending. Because of avoiding the difficulty of c¹ continuity, the construction of thin plate elements becomes easier. In this paper, a new four node, sixteen D.O.F (degree of freedom) flat thin shell element is presented on the basis of the similarity theory. This element is combined by the four node plane rational element (membrane part) and a four node plate element using the similarity theory (bending part). Numerical results of typical problems show that this new element exhibits very good convergence and high precision.