DEVELOPMENT AND NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF A NEW STRAIN-BASED FOUR-NODE FINITE ELEMENT FOR KIRCHHOFF PLATE ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT: This work presents a new four-node quadrilateral finite element developed for the linear bending analysis of plate structures. The element is formulated using a strain-based approach consistent with Kirchhoff plate theory and employs three degrees of freedom at each vertex. Its performance is evaluated through a set of standard benchmark tests involving various plate geometries, loading scenarios, and boundary conditions. Numerical results confirm high accuracy, strong resistance to mesh distortion, and rapid convergence, even for relatively coarse meshes. These features indicate that the proposed element offers a reliable and computationally efficient solution for plate analysis in practical engineering problems