GENERALIZED CONFORMING THIN PLATE RECTANGULAR ELEMENT BY USING SEMILOOF CONSTRAINTS

A twelve—DOF generalized conforming thin plate rectangular element is established by using semiLoof constraints. The element DOFs are defined only with displacements at corner nodes. In the formulation only point compatibility conditions are used. This new element which learns from the strong points of both the generalized conforming element and the semiLoof element seems to be one of the best twelve—DOF rectangular thin plate bending elements currently avaiable.