A quadrilateral hybrid stress element for Mindlin plates based on incompatible displacements

An hybrid stress element formulation based on internal, incompatible displacements is used to develop efficient Mindlin plate elements. The 4‐node quadrilateral Mindlin plate element is derived from a modified energy functional. Both displacements and stresses are defined in the natural co‐ordinate interpolation system. The assumed stress field is obtained by tensor transformation and so chosen as to ensure that the element is co‐ordinate invariant and stable. Shear locking is avoided through an appropriate identification of the internal, incompatible displacement field. The role played by incompatible displacements in the formulation of hybrid stress elements for thin and moderately thick plates is discussed. Numerical applications are presented to illustrate the accuracy and reliability of the suggested Mindlin plate element.