A CS-MITC3+ plate element for static analysis of HSDT-type functionally graded plates under thermo-mechanical loading

This paper introduces the development of a 3-node triangular plate element, which utilizes C0-type shape functions enhanced by a cubic function at the bubble node positioned at the element’s centroid. This element is designed for the static analysis of functionally graded (FG) plates based on high-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The in-plane strains of the element are averaged over sub-triangular domains bounded by straight lines connecting the vertex nodes to the bubble node. The cell-based smoothed (CS) technique simplifies the integration of in-plane stiffness matrices by confining it to the boundaries of the sub-triangular domains. To reduce the shear-locking phenomenon caused by the thin plate’s thickness, the approach of mixed interpolation tensorial components (MITC3+) is employed to independently interpolate the transverse shear strains. Several benchmark FG plates subjected to thermo-mechanical loading are statically analyzed using the proposed element, referred to as the CS-MITC3+ plate element. The robustness of the presented element is evaluated in comparison with references.