Analysis of composite plates by a unified formulation-cell based smoothed finite element method and field consistent elements

In this article, we combine Carrera's Unified Formulation (CUF) [13,7] and cell based smoothed finite element method [28] for studying the static bending and the free vibration of thin and thick laminated plates. A 4-noded quadrilateral element based on the field consistency requirement is used for this study to suppress the shear locking phenomenon. The combination of cell based smoothed finite element method and field consistent approach with CUF allows a very accurate prediction of field variables. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed approach are demonstrated through numerical experiments. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.