INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 2000; 00:1–6 Prepared using nmeauth.cls [Version: 2002/09/18 v2.02] On stabilized finite element methods for the Reissner-Mindlin plate model Reijo Kouhia ∗ Laboratory of Structural Mechanics, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 2100, 02015 TKK, Finland SUMMARY Stabilized finite element formulation for the Reissner-Mindlin plate model is considered. Physical interpretation for the stabilization procedure for low order elements is established. Explicit interpolation functions for linear and bilinear stabilized MITC elements are derived. Some numerical examples including buckling and frequency analyses are presented. Copyright c  2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words: Reissner-Mindlin plate model, stabilization, finite element 1. INTRODUCTION In contrast to the the classical Kirchhoff-Love theory of plates, the Reissner-Mindlin type plate theories require only C 0 -continuity of the interpolating functions. At the beginning, this fact seems to simplify the formulation of a plate or shell element. However, there are problems associated with the equal order interpolation of deflection w and the rotations θ x ,θ y , especially in the thin plate limit, where most of the Reissner-Mindlin type plate elements exhibit too stiff a response which is due to so called shear locking. Reduced integration or selective reduced integration are introduced in order to avoid the locking problem, but usually result in an unstable method. The locking phenomenon is more striking in low-order elements and it is shown to disappear when the interpolation functions are of order 5 or higher [30]. However, some stable low-order elements exist like the nonconforming Arnold-Falk triangle [2] for which numerical results are presented in ref. [15] or the modification [18] which is computationally much more efficient. In recent years there has been a considerable interest to derive nonconforming elements for the Reissner-Mindlin plate model using discontinuous Galerkin techniques, see refs. [11, 12]. Other approaches for the finite element solution of Reissner-Mindlin plate problem can be found, e.g. in refs. [3, 5, 8]. Using a conforming equal order interpolation for both deflection and rotation is convenient for practical implementation. However, the construction of such a plate bending element * Correspondence to: Laboratory of Structural Mechanics, Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 2100, 02015 TKK, Finland, e-mail: reijo.kouhia@tkk.fi Received Copyright c  2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Revised