Performance of Coons' macroelements in plate bending analysis

This paper proposes a general procedure to develop arbitrary noded-plate macroelements with C¹-continuity based on Coons interpolation formula. The novelty of the proposed approach lies in the fact that the degrees of freedom appear only along the boundaries of the quadrilateral patch and are used for the successful calculation of displacements and relevant stresses. The boundary nodes are being interpolated using univariate Hermitian polynomials, thus allowing bivariate global shape functions to be automatically produced. The proposed macroelement, which will be hereafter called COPE (Coons Plate Element), provides comparable results with closed-form analytical solutions in six benchmark plate-bending cases.