REPRINT 132

Finite Element Displacement Analysis

of Plate Bending Based
on Rectangular. Elements
By Civil Engineer HARALD ~N5TEEN
Norwegian Building Research Institute

~
Norges byggforslmingsinstitutt

NORWEGIAN BUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE

NUl
00000

OSLO 1966
 University of Newcastle upon Tyne Department of Civil Engineering
WORKING SESSION No.4. PAPER No. 14.

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM
The use oj Electronic Digital Computers in Structural Engineering

FINITE ELEMENT DISPLACEMENT ANALYSIS OF PLATE BENDING

BASED ON RECTANGULAR ELEMENTS

1
Harald Hansteen

SYNOPSIS

This paper describes a finite element procedure which ensures com-

plete continuity of displacements between adjacent elements. The reli-
ability of the procedure is illustrated by numerical solutions given
at the end of the paper.

INTRODUCTION

In plate bending problems few of the cases met with in practice can
be solved by analytically exact methods. Very often one has to rely on
approximate procedures of variable accuracy. It is natural, therefore,
that investigators have shown great interest in examining the possibili-
ties offered by the finite element method, and as a result a number of
papers on the subject have been published in the recent years. The major
part of these works is concerned with plate elements of rectangular form.
Numerical results reported are yet too few to give reason for any conclu-
sions concerning the accuracy and reliability of the approach in general.
However, encouraging results have been obtained in particular cases,
Zienkiewicz (8). Some investigators have wanted to utilize the advantage
of triangular elements in representing plates of arbitrary shape. Nume-
rical examples carried through by this procedure have not proved.to be
1
Civil engineer, Norwegian Building Research Institute, Oslo, Norway.

A",., .'~
•••. ~ _.1. •
as accurate as for rectangular elements. The results show a converging
character as the element size decreases; however, the values towards
which they converge greatly depend. on the displacement patterns selec-
ted for the elements and have generally little resemblance to the correct
values, Clough (4).
Melosh (7) hap shown that a necessary condition for the finite element
displacement method to converge towards the correct solution is that the
selected displacement patterns must be continuous in the internal of the
elements, and maintain continuity with displacements of adjacent elements.
This condition has not been fully accomplished by the procedures published
so far, all of which fail to establish continuity in normal slopes along
the lines connecting the nodal points. Clough (4) claims this circumstance
to be the basic reason for the lack of accuracy of his results. One
should anticipate a similar tendency to oceur for the procedures applying
rectangular elements. When such a tendency is not as yet found, the reason
is probably that in the limited number of test examples examined the dis-
crepancy in normal slope between the elements has been of little signifi-
canoe.

ANALYSIS OF ELEMENT STIFFNESS IN BENDING

The fundamental idea of the finite element method is to represent the

actual structure by a finite number of individual elements, interconnected
at a finite number of nodal points. The stiffness of the idealized struc-
ture is obtained by adding the stiffnesses possessed by the individual
elements. To obtain a good computational model it is therefore of great
importance to be careful when deciding the· stiffness properties of the
elements.
To be able.to derive the element stiffnesses, one has to assume a fi-
nite number of displacement modes [degrees of freedom] for the eiement.
The final dispiacement ·pattern of the element Will be l:lJnited to a linear
I
combination of these displacement modes. These :lJnposed restpictloDs to the
deformation of the element is equivalent to the introduction of constraints,
and it is fairly obvious; therefore, that the computed stiffnes~~~ w1l~.be
greater than the true ones, provided that the selected displacement pat-
terns satisfy the Melosh conditions referenced above. Further· it should be
emphasized that the Melosh conditions are necessary, but not sufficient,
to ensure convergency of the results. Another important condition must
be that the selected displace~nts should be able to describe all the
essential modes of the true solution in all points of the
plate. If this is not achieved the finite element s.olution will converge
towards values for the displacements which are smaller than the true va-
lues.
In Fig. 1a are shown the four rectangular elements interconnected at
nodal point number k. The outer edges of the elements are supposed to be
completely fixed, and the object is to study the stiffness properties of
the elements due to generalized unit displacements of point k. The gene-
ral displacement pattern of the built-in plate is composed by four essen-
tially different modes of displacements, as described in Table 1. To the
right in the Table are given the corresponding values of the nodal dis-
placements:

Displ. at node k.
Displacement patterns
wk wk,x w w
k,y k,xy
.
1. Positive displ. of all four elements 1 0 0 0

2. Positive displ. of elements I and IV,

negative displ. of elements II and III 0 1 0 0

3. Positive displ. of elements I and II.

negative displ. of elements III and IV 0 0 1 0

4. Positive displ. of elements I and III,

negative displ. of elements II and IV 0 0 0 1

Table 1

Here w is the normal displacement of node k and the comma denotes par-
k
tial differentation.
Fig. lb shows element III provided with, an internal coordinate system
(x,y,z), z positive downwards, and with internal numbering of the nodes
from 1 to 4 [internal node 1 corresponds to the global numbering k]. The
side lengths of the element are a and b, and a new set of dimensionless
coordinates (~,~) which may substitute coordinates (x,y) are defined as
follows:

5= x/a, "l = y/b (1 )

The simplest polynomial representation of the displacements satisfying
both the Melosh conditions and the displacement patterns of Table 1, will
for node 1 be:

The notation
1
(5,1) is adopted to describe the continuous normal displace-
V

ments corresponding to displacements at node 1. The equation may be written

on matrix form, yielding

(3)

where IA 1 is a row vector and"" 1 a column vector as follows:

(4)

.., 1 = { wI' aw 1 ,x' bW 1 ,y' abw 1 ,xy} (5)

Similarily one can find the displacement patterns corresponding to unit

displacements at nodes 2 - 4. Hence the total displacement of an element
is expressed by:

v(s,') = [A 1,A 2 ,A y "'4 ] "'1 = A(S'7) 'W (6 )

""2
1>01
3
'''''4

The "'i matrices are easily obtained from Eq. (5) by substituting the ac-
tual nodal point number. The IA i matrices will be

A2 = [ 4<t+~)2(1+S)(~7)2(1+'l) , 2( ~+5h~+5) (i+')2( 1+?)

+2(~+~)2(1+S)(~7)2(~+'l) , +(~+~l(i+5)(i+'l)2(t+?) ]

= [ 4(~+5)2(1+5)(~+?)2(1+7) , 2( ~+5)2 (i+s) a+? l( 1+?)

2(i+s)2( 1+s)(i+'(')2( ~'1) , (~+S)2(~5)(t+?)2(i+?) ] (7a- c)

= [ 4(~5)2(1+5)(~+7)2(1+'Z) , +2(~5)2( t+S) (~+?)2( 1+'()

2( ~§)2( 1+:5)(~+'7)2( i+?) , +(~S)2(~+5)(~+?)2(~?) ]
Differentiating Eq. (6) the internal element curvatures,~, may be ex-
pressed qy the generalized displacements at the nodes, as follows:

(8)

Introducing now the elastic characteristics Df the finite element mate-

rial defined by the stress-strain matrix ID , the internal moments,M ,
in the element are expressed by

where

[) Et 3 0 (10)
~

12(1'l-\?) "
0
"
0 0 2( 1+,,)

E ~ [~odulus of elasticity
" ~ Pcisson's ratio
t thickness of the plate

The elastic energy stDred in an element upon deformation, Wi' should

equalize the external work, W , performed by the load on the element.
e
This load consists of the reactive nodal forces from adjacent elements,
S, and distributed and concentrated loads at the surface of the plate.
For brevity Dnly distributed surface loads, q(S'~)' are considered in the
derivation below; however, there are no di~ficulties in taking into ac-
count also concentrated forces or moments arbitrarily situated on the ele-
ments. The expressions for work then are:

Wi ~ is )(.t M dV ~ -kwt [J B t[)1B dV]w ~ ~ "...h~...... (11)

Vol Vol
We ~t \,}S + -k lre~ t q d A ~ t"hs + {ret't q d A] ~ ~ ....t[S +5] (12)

Equating the two expressions one obtains

(13 )
where

j i3 t(S,?)[JIB (S.,,/) dV (14 )

Vol
j At(5''7)q(~,?)dA (15 )
Area

~ is the 16 by 16 stiffness matrix of an element and 5 a 16 by 1 mat-

rix representing the external load on the plate. is has generally nou-
zero elements and may be interpreted as generallized loadings [both ver-
tical forces and moments] acting in the nodal points. [See also Zienkie-
wicz (8)].
If the size of the elements is small compared to the dimensions of the
plate the substitution of distributed loads by concentrated vertical for-
ces at the nodes is a reasonably good approximation. When using relative-
ly large elements, however, one should anticipate improvement of the
accuracy by doing the more detailed analysis shown above. As the latter
procedure completely corresponds to the actual loads on the plate, andas
the elements ors are usually easy to calculate, there should be little
reason not to prefer this procedure in all cases.
The stiffness of the assembled structure is obtained from Eq. (13) by
adding the stiffnesses of the individual elements meeting in each nodal
point. The final equation relating generalized nodal loads, ~ • to the
corresponding nodal displacements, r , may be written.

R ; D< .. (16 )

~ being the stiffness matrix of the assembled structure. After inserting

the actual boundary conditions in Eq. (16), th~ nodal displacements are'
found by solving the system of simultaneous equations. With the nodal dis-
placements known the plate moments may be computed from Eq. (9) ..

EXAMPLES OF NUMERICAL SOLUTIONS

The numerical results shown below are intended to illustrate the accu-
racy of the procedure. The moment values repo~ted are the mean values of
the moments at each nodal point. In the cases where distributed loads
occur the corresponding nodal loads have been computed from Eq. (15).
 Example l : The first example is the standard problem of a simply sup-'
ported quadratic plate og uniform thickness shown in Fig. 2. Two loading
cases are considered:

~ase 1: A uniform load allover the plate.

case 2: A concentrated load in the middle of the plate.

To study the convergence of the solution four different finite elemen~

meshes of successively reduced sizes have been employed as shown in the

figure. The accuracy of the various solutions is exemplified by comparing
the values obtained for the central point of the plate to the exact values.
The results are given in the table at the bottom of Fig. 2.

Example 2: Fig. 3 shows the same plate as in example 1, this time par-
tially loaded by a uniform load over a square 1/8 by 1/8 of the side lengths.
The applied finite element mesh, as well as the position of the loaded area -~;

[shaded in the figure], are shown in the figure. In the accompaning table
are given the computed and the exact displacements and moments at the nodal ..• ,
points of the section A-A.
,
1
Example 3: The third example is a uniformly loaded plate completely
fixed at three edges' and free at the fourth edge. The results are cum-
pared to a nearly exact solution of the problem proposed by Hellan (6).
Hellan has given the displacement values with three significant digits.
These digits are verified by the finite element solution. The necessary
data of the example and the moments in significant sections of the plate
are shown in Fig. 4.

CONCLUSIONS

The numerical examples cover some of the loading cases and'ed!e conditi-
ons that frequently oocur in practical problems. It ia intere!ting to note
that the degree of accuracy obtained for the displacements and the mo-
ments in the various caaes do not depend on the type of the problem.
This indicates that equally accurate results may be expected for other
types of problems.
In example 1 are tested tbe convergence properties of the procedure.
That the results do co;"';"~e toward the correct solution is clearly de-
monstrated by the resultfr. Another interesting feature is that even the
results obtained for the very coarse mesh n = 1 are well within the li-
mits of accuracy needed in practical computations. One should, however,
be careful not to draw any conclusions from one simple example. Further
investigations are needed to clarify the connection between the size of
the finite elements and the accuracy of the results.
The results of Examples 2 and 3 are close to the exact values. The
greatest errors occur at points where the gradient of the curvatures are .
steep, as in point 3 of Example 2. The maximum values seem to be very
accurate. An exception is the moment value in point 1 of Example 3. How-
ever, in this particular point Hellan (6) points out that the reference
value is less reliable.

Note. - During the preparation of this paper it came to the author's

knowledge that a report, that in parts may develop along similar lines
as the present work, have been made by Butlin (3). As this report has
not been available for the author he has not been able to check the points
of similarity.

REFERENCES

1. Argyris, J. H. "Matrix Displacement Analysis of Anisotropic Shells

by Triangular Elements" Journal of the Royal AerCftau.tlcal Society,
Vol. 69, Nov. 1965.

2. Argyris, J. H. "The Trondheim Lectures on the Matrix Theory of

Structures". John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., London 1966.

3. ButUn, G. A. "On the Finite Element Technique in Plate Bending

Analysis; a Derivation of a Basic Stiffness 'Matrix" Internal re-
P9rt at Engineering Dep., Churchill College, Cambridge.

4. Clough, R. W. "The Finite Element Method in Strutural Mechanics" in

"Stress Analysis." John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., London 1965.

5. Clough, R. W. and Tocher, J. L. "Analysis of Thin Arch Dama by the

Finite Element Method': Int. Symp. on the Theory of Arch Dams, Sout-
hampton Univ., Pergamon Press, 1964.

6. Hellan, K. "The Rectangular Plate with One Free Edge", Trondhelm 1960.

7. Melosh, R. J. "Basis for the Derivation of Matrices for the Direct

Stiffness Method", J." Am. Aero. Astro., 1, 1631, 1963.
 Displacements and lDOments at the central point.

common
n = 1 2 3 4 exact factor

w 45002 44376 44353 44344 44343 4 3 +6

qa /Et x10 '
case I
M 4,68 4,66 4,73 4,75 4,79 qa 2xl0+2 .

case II w 1209 1252 1260 1263 1265 Pa 2 /Et3x10+4

Fig. 2.

, Simply support~d ~dg~s

I Loads
---+--- --- X
Cas~ I: uniform load
Ca$~lI: conc~ntrat~d load
9
P
I, in c~ntral point
, v =0,3

I.. a .1 Analysis of this lJuart~r

M~sh SIZ~S
 Dis~lacements and moments along section A - A r.
/ ..

common
Point 2 3 4 5 6 factor

f.e.m. 6447 12312 13735 11793 6499

4 - ~7
.w, qa /Eexl0·
exact 6453 12320 13737 11793 6501

! f.e.m. 0,27 1,08 2,70 2,62 0,94

MJli
..
exact 0,26 1,19 2,70 2,63 0,94
qa 2xl0 +3
foe .m. 0,75 1,85 2,70 2,48 1,18
My
exact 0,73 1,83 2,70 2,49 1,15

f.e.m. ='finite element method

Fig: 3.

Simply supported edges

:j--+--t-e~~::t-__~!!~i form load 9
A-.4-~--+-~ .It

~-+--rH-t---t-- -
'X

V :: 0,3

1 2 34567 • ---A
A---· • II • • •
8. Zienkiewicz, O. C. "Finite Element Procedures in the Solution of
Plate and Shell Problems"in Stress Analysis". John Wiley & Sons Ltd.,
London, 1965.

9. Zienkiewicz, O. C. and Cheung, Y. K. "Finite Element Method of Analysis

of Arch Dam Shells and Comparison with Finite Difference Procedure,s".
Intern. Symp. on the Theory of Arch Dams, Southampton Univ., Pergamon
Press, 1964.
 41><
,
I -
~
.....
~

--
I~

•
.:.:

~ !sf

~.
 Moments.

common
Point 1 2 3 4 5 factor

f.e.m. + 6,89 + 5,18 + 3,25 + 1,20

Mx °
Hellan (6 ) + 7,14 + 5,18 + 3,22 + 1,15
°
Point 5 6 7 8 9

f.e .m. 0 • 1,20 + 3,20 + 4,64 + 5,15

My
Hellan (6) + 1,13 + 3,17 + 4,64 + 5,16
° qa 2x 10+2
Point 9. 10 11 12 13
-
Mx 0 0,09 1,16 1,98 2,56
f.e.ro.
My + 5}15 + 1,29 0,40 0,71

Mx
°
0,11 1,17 1,98 2,54
Hellan (6) °
My + 5,16 + 1.32 0,35 0,68

f.e.ro. = finite element method

°
Fig. 4.

1 13 Upp~r ~dg~ fre~.

2 12 oth~r edg~s fixed
3 11
Uniform load CJ
4 10 v.0.2
~ I 8 9
~f---_~a .. 1
--- x