Volume 11 Issue 4 ( December 2024)

The mesh orientation effect on the solution accuracy for composite plate structures using the DKMT (Discrete Kirchhoff-Mindlin Triangular) element is evaluated. DKMT is a triangular element that is free of shear locking and shows the best performance in the isotropic and composite plate in thin and thick problems. Two tests proposed with three and nine layers are evaluated using two mesh orientations (right orientation, Mesh A, and left orientation, Mesh B). The convergence of central displacement and total energy is then presented to understand which mesh orientations give better accuracy. The DKMT element gives good convergence behavior to the reference solution. Moreover, the DKMT element is not sensitive to mesh distortion. Mesh A provides better accuracy than mesh B for all cases analyzed in this paper.

Keywords: Composites plates; DKMT; Mesh orientation; Finite Element Method