Implementation and analysis of a quadrilateral plate element in MATLAB
The following is an implemention and analysis of a plate quad element in MATLAB. L = 10 m, t = 100 mm, E = 30 x 106 MPa, and υ = 0.3.
Analysis inludes permutations of the following:
1.) Supports (in both cases, all perimeter displacements are restrained)
- Edges are fully clamped (all perimeter rotations are restrained)
- Edges are simply supported (all perimeter rotations are released)
2.) Loading
- Distributed load of q = 10 Pa downward applied to the entire plate
- Concentrated load of P = 1 kN downward applied to the plate center
3.) Mesh Refinement: quadrant is modelled with 1, 4, 16, and 64 elements
4.) Gaussian Quadrature: shear stiffness found using 1x1 and 2x2 integration
Graphs and tabulations of the normalized center deflection of the plate against the logarithm of the number of elements (nel) used are included in the analysis.