INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, VOL.

12, 1059-1079 (1978)

A STUDY OF QUADRILATERAL PLATE BENDING

ELEMENTS WITH ‘REDUCED’ INTEGRATION
E. D. L. PUGH*
West Glamorgan County Council, Wales, U.K.

E. HINTONt AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZS

Department of Civil Engineering, University College of Swansea, Swansea, Wales, U.K.

SUMMARY
The accuracy of certain thick plate elements when used in the context of thin plate problems can be
improved by the use of reduced integration of the stiffness matrices. A series of numerical experiments
on five different quadrilateral thick plate elements demonstrates the use of reduced integration and
indicates the main reason for its success. This is the relaxation of a constraint on the shear strains. It is
shown that the performance of a nine-noded Lagrangian element is near optimal.

INTRODUCTION
A variety of shell and platel-’ elements based on an independent slope and displacement
interpolation have been proposed since the early days of the finite element method when the
difficulties of ensuring full C, continuous interpolation were discovered. Whilst such elements
are capable of dealing satisfactorily with thick shell and plate components, their performance
degenerates rapidly as the shell or plate becomes thin. It was only the successful use of reduced
integration which permitted the use of such elements in a general ~ o n t e x t . ~ ”
The reasons for the success of reduced integration in the general context of finite element
problems have only recently been understood and are fully discussed elsewhere.6 Here,
attention will be focused on the main reason for the successful use of reduced integration with
plate elements. This involves the relaxation of a certain constraint by the introduction of a
matrix singularity. Experiments with linear, parabolic and cubic quadrilaterals will be reported
and it will be shown that the nine-node Lagrangian element in this type is nearly optimal as a
general plate element. The family of elements and the order of ‘normal’ and ‘reduced’
integration used in the present studies are indicated in Figure 1, together with the key
nomenclature.

THE ENERGY FUNCTIONAL AND PENALTY FUNCTION FORMULATION

The assumptions made in the plate theory adopted are basically those due to Mindlin.’
(i) the deflections are small

* Graduate Engineer. Former Research Student in Civil Engineering Department, University College of Swansea.
t Lecturer.
t Professor.

0029-598 1/78/0712-1O59$01.00
@ 1977 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received March 1977
1059
1060 E. D. L. PUGH, E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZlENKIEWICZ

'Reduced' 2 x 2 3 1 3
integration

-A- L R I OSR
-0- I -0-

'Normal '
integration 2 x 2 I 3x 3

Minimum 1 2 x 2 3x 3
integration
Polynomial Linear Quadratic Cubic

Figure 1. Series of quadrilateral elements for plate bending. 3 degrees-of-freedom per node [ w, ex, e,.] C, inter-
polation. Integration rules and code

(ii) normal to the plate mid-surface before deformation remain straight but not necessarily
normal to it after deformation
(iii) stresses normal to the mid-surface are negligible.
It is then possible to describe the generalized displacement 6 in terms of three independent
variables,
6 = [w,ex,e,]' (1)
which denote lateral displacement and normal rotations in the xz and yz planes respectively.
The generalized strain components x and 4 can then be written as

X= = L16 and 4=

The bending moments M and shear force Q which are written as

M = [M,, My,M,,IT and Q = [Ox,O,]'
are related to the generalized strain components by the expressions
M=Dfx and Q = D , 4
 QUADRILATERAL PLATE BENDING ELEMENTS 1061

The total potential energy is thus given as

where q is the lateral distributed load.

For a homogeneous, isotropic plate with Young's modulus E, Poisson's ratio u, thickness t
and a transverse shear modulus G

Df= Et3
12(1- 2)
[:
0 0 (1-v)/2
8 ] a n d Q = - IGt
a

where a = is a correction factor to allow for non-uniform shear stress distribution.

Since the energy is defined using only first derivatives of the displacement (and slope)
variables then only C, continuity is required for the interpolation functions used in the finite
element formulation and here we shall use a common interpolation for all variables,
6 = C Nia, = Na (7)
where a stands for the vector of all nodal variables.
The shape functions used for elements shown in Figure 1 are the well known serendipity and
Lagrangian forms' and details of the finite element ,formulation including an isoparametric
curvilinear distortion can be found elsewhere. The program used for the present studies is
based on a modified version of a finite element program described in detail by Hinton and
Owen.' The energy functional of equation (5) can be rewritten using non-dimensional vari-
ables for clarity. Thus, if X' = x/L, y' = y/L, w' = w / L , D; = Df/Et3,q' = qL2/Et2,x' = xL,
t ' / t / L and p = GL2/aEt2then

where L is a reference length (e.g. span of plate). The parameter p plays an important part in
the analysis and as the plate is made thin it can be interpreted as a penalty number"
introduced to enforce the Kirchhoff constraints

On discretization of (8) and subsequent minimization, an equation system of the form

[K; + pg]a = f' (10)

is obtained. The thin plates solution is then obtained as p + 00. Clearly, unless the matrix is
singular such a solution will be over-constrained and a unrealistic answer with a+O will be
obtained. This is indeed the paramount cause of the failure of the early formulation to model
thin plate behaviour-with excessive shear rigidity observed. We shall refer to this
phenomenon as 'locking'.
We shall find that reduced integration is an effective way of providing such a singularity of
the Ki matrix without at the same time introducing a singularity of the total matrix [K;+pK].
1062 E. D. L. PUGH. E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZ

NUMERICAL INTEGRATION AND SINGULARITY OF STIFFNESS MATRICES

In finite element formulations the use of numerical integration has long been advocated. It
was often considered simply as a convenient and easily programmed substitute for the more
laborious and error-prone approach based on exact analytical integration. A certain minimum
order of numerical integration is however necessary in order to ensure that the convergence
characteristics of a given element are not disturbed. If, in the finite element discretization of
the functional given in equation (8), a complete polynomial expansion of degree p is used, then
the error in the energy approximation'' is O(h2@-'+') )where h is the element size and m is the
highest order of differentiation in the energy expression. If the order of the error involved in
this approximation is not to be affected by numerical evaluation of the energy, it is necessary
for the numerical integration to be exact for polynomials of degree 2@ - l).'2*'3
We cannot automatically assume that stiffness matrices computed using the minimum
integration rule will be non-singular.
Let b be the total number of integration points, k the number of strains used in the
formation of the stiffness matrix and j the total number of available degrees-of-freedom a
(with suitable restraints against rigid body motion). Then, if

S =j - b k > O (11)
the associated stiffness matrix may be singular. If the bk relationships at the integration points
are not in fact independent then the stiffness matrix may still be singular even if S < 0. In the
derivation of only two independent constraints are introduced at each integration point i.e.
k = 2. For the matrix [Ki+pKJ however five 'strain' quantities are introduced i.e. k = 5.
We shal! see that for a single element supported in a manner eliminating rigid body motion,
the adoption of the lowest integration rules permitted to ensure the full rate of convesgence
(Figure 1) will always result in becoming singular. With the exception of CSR, matrix
[K, +pKJ will also become singular thus leading to zero energy mechanisms.
In Table I we show the effect on S of the addition of an element to a large mesh. Here it is
seen that the use of reduced integration is likely to lead to no singularity in [K;+pKJ whereas,
.apart from CSR, K: will always be singular.
Table I1 shows the value of the locking indicator S for a typical square uniformly loaded
plate idealized using 64 (i.e. 8 x 8) elements with either simply supported or clamped boundary
conditions.
A more rigorous method of determining whether a matrix is singular or not is based on the
evaluation of the number of zero-valued eigenvalues associated with it. The number of
zero-valued eigenvalues for a single element or group of elements unrestrained against
movement should be equal to three in the present case. These eigenvalues correspond to the
rigid body modes and any further zero-valued eigenvalues are associated with mechanisms o r
zero energy modes. Mechanisms detected in a single element may propagate when several
elements are joined together. Alternatively, they may disappear due to the incompatability of
the associated zero energy eigenmodes or the prescription of certain boundary conditions
which tend to suppress the mechanisms. While we welcome the singularity in Kf we should
treat with great suspicion the existence of mechanisms associated with the overall stiffness
matrix K ; + p K .
A very rough estimate on the number of zero-valued eigenvalues other than those cor-
responding to rigid body modes is given by S in (1l), with the modification that if S is negative,
it is taken as equal to zero.
Table 111 compares the computed and estimated number of mechanisms for single elements.
It should be noted that in the estimates using (ll), j is taken as the total number of
 QUADRILATERAL PLATE BENDING ELEMENTS 1063

Table I. Singularity indication for reduced integration elements. s = j - bk > 0 indicates singularity;
b-integi eating points; k-independent relations of each integration point (5 for K;+pK. 2 for g);
j-number of degrees-of-freedom added = 3 X number of new nodes

LR 0 3
1XlK

2X2K;
>5
1x1

Singular
2

OSR 0 9 2x2 20
2x2

Singular
8

2x2 8
OLR 12 2x2 20

Singular

3x3 18
15 3x3 45
CSR
Non-singular in
this configuration

3x3 18
CLR 27 3x3 45
~~ ~

Singular

Table 11. Locking indicator for reduced integration elements for

square plate under uniformly distributed loading with various
edge supports (8 X 8 mesh, NES = 8)

Locking
Support indicator
Element conditions S = j-bk Comments

LR ss 16 No locking
C 8 No locking
QSR ss 16 Slight locking
C 0 Locking
QLR ss 64 No locking
C 48 No locking
CSR ss -48 Locking
-72 Locking
CLR ss 144 No locking
C 120 No locking

SS--simply supported edges.

C-clamped edges.
1064 E. D. L. PUGH, E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZ

Table 111. Estimated and computed number of zero eigenvalues for single element stiffness matrices K:
and K; + PK: other than those associated with rigid body modes. b-number of integrating points; k-
number of independent relations at each integration point (5 for K;+BK. 2 for K); j-number of
degrees-of-freedom per element-3

Estimated no. of zero Computed no. of

eigenvalues other zero eigenvalues
than those associated other than those
with rigid body modes associated with
Numerical max (j- bk, 0) rigid body modes
integration
rule K G+PK K K+PK

1x1 7 4 7 4

1X 1Ks
2 X 2Kr 7 <4 7 2

2x2 13 1 13 1
3x3 3 0 3 0

OLR
2x2 16 4 16 4

3x3 6 0 6 0

r-1 CSR 3x3 15 0 17 0

1 = ~ CSN 4x4 1 0 9 0

CLR
3x3 27 0 27 4

CLN 4x4 13 0 13 0

degrees-of-freedom of the element minus three. Apparently the CSR reduced integration
cubic serendipity element contains no mechanism associated with S + PK: whereas all of the
other reduced integration elements do. However, it is known that the single mechanism in
QSR does not spread in assembled meshes and Hughes et all4 have described methods for
dealing with the two mechanisms in element LR. The four mechanisms in QLR can give rise to
a singularity in K{+ for certain boundary conditions as we shall see later.
It is of interest to note that the QSR element is the basic element proposed in Reference 4.
Element LR has only recently been shown to be s~ccessful'~ and QLR has been suggested by
Cook's but not tested extensively. The cubic elements without reduced integration CSN and
CLN have been shown to be successful in the context of laminated plates by Noor and
Mathers. ''
 QUADRILATERAL PLATE BENDING ELEMENTS 1065

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS
Figures 2-5 summarize the results of some numerical experiments performed using the five
quadrilateral plate bending elements with reduced and exact integration. Convergence curves
for typical thin (t/L=O.Ol) and thick (t/L=O*l) plates are shown in Figures 2 and 3. As
expected reduced integration in most cases improves element performance.
Figure 4 shows the manner in which the elements behave for a given mesh subdivision
(NES = 8) as f/L increases.
For a fixed mesh size, even in a situation in which K is singular, as t/L tends to zero it is only
a matter of time before the effect of the bending stiffness vanishes completely due to finite
computer word length. In the present studies computations are carried out in single precision
on a CDC 7600 with 14 significant digits and in the cases with no apparent locking, no
degradation of results is observed with t/L as low as
For the linear, quadratic and cubic Lagrangian elements, the use of reduced rather than
exact integration leads to improved results and in all cases no locking occurs. The parabolic
serendipity element however shows some slight locking for the ,simply supported plate, while
for the clamped plate problem locking clearly occurs. When this element is exactly integrated
locking occurs for both simply supported and clamped edge supports. For the cubic serendipity
element locking occurs for both simply supported and clamped conditions when either reduced
or exact integration is adopted. For the cases when reduced integration is used, Table I11 gives
the values of the locking indicator S and it can be seen that when S s 0 there is always locking.
It should however be noted that QSR appears to give some slight locking for the simply
supported plate even though S = 16.
In the basic formulation given by equation (10) ill-conditioning of the equations will always
arise for very large values of p (or for very thin plates).
To prevent degradation of results it has been suggested that an accurate thin plate solution
can be obtained by substituting an artificial plate thickness t greater than the true plate
thickness t in the finite element solution. The artificial plate thickness is obtained from
optimum values of the parameter

which can be obtained from subsidiary convergence studies in the manner described by
Fried.17 Optimum y values’* exist for elements LR, QSR and CSR but for QLR and CLR it
appears that t/L can be made very small and for all practical purposes the true thickness t can
be used when computations are carried out on a computer with 14 significant digits. Parisch”
however, found that for QLR divergence of results occurs with a value of t / L equal to 0.001
on a computer with only 8 significant digits.
Mindlin plate theory predicts that both deflection and bending moment under a point load
should be infinite for both thick and thin plates. In the present finite element convergence
studies, although the bending moment diverges rapidly towards infinity for a relatively thick
plate ( t / L= 0. l), no divergence occurs for a thin plate (t/L = 0-01)and the solution converges
correctly to the thin plate solution.
It is clear that because of their superiority over the other elements, the Lagrangian elements
QLR and CLR are indicated for practical use. However, care has to be taken to ensure that,
for a given problem, support conditions are such that a mechanism is not allowed to develop.
For the two quadratic elements the problem of a thin square plate vertically supported at
three corners and point-loaded at the other was considered. The results obtained with QSR
1066 E. D. L. PUGH, E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZ

(A
L
a
2
In
W W

aJ
(A
aJ
5
u-
0
v) v)
m u * w aJ
Z z u
l
c

.
l .
l

N N

0 0 0 0 0

0 ,
31-&

(D

U .
l

N N

0 0 0 0 0
n +
PI
 ( i1 Simply supported
1 B)
(ii)Clamped edge

0
wc D
- C
>
ql U
e
5
8P
2 4 6 8 10
NES ?I

0.0017
i
W

0.0016 9
9
z
Q
0-0015 m
r
WC D
- rn
ql
0-mu B
3
0.0013
2 & 6 8 10 2 4 6 8 10
NE S NES
QSR-o-(2x2) Gaussian integration of ail terms. Q S N --0--(3 x 3) Gaussian integration of all terms
QLR-0- 1. ## 8, 8. QLN--.-- . . I,

Figure 2. continued
 ( i ) Simply supported [ i i ) Clamped edge
0.0041 t 1 1 1

0.0039 0~0011.

0.0038 0.0010

0-0037 0.0009-
2 4 6 8 10 2 4 6 8 10
NES
0,0016

o,oms

0,0014

0.0013

0.0012
2 L 6 8 10 2 4 6 8 lo
NES NES
CSR - 0- ( 3 x 3 ) Gaussian integration of all terms, CSN --0- x
- (4 L ) Gaussian integration of all terms
CLR a I . " CLN

Figure 2. continued
 (A)
(i) Simply supported (ii) Clamped edge
0.0130 1 0.0070

0.0120 0.0060
Exact thin ilatc solution 0.0116
i I dL
0.0110 0.0050
WC 0
- wc D
-
PI a PI -2
0.0100 . 0~00~0
t/l = 0.01 0
0.0090 0.0030

a
(6)
(i) Simply supported (ii) Clamped edge 5
W
rn
z
9
8
Prn

WC D
- WC D
PI 2 PI’

2 I 6 8 10 2 I 6 8 I0
NES NES
QSR -0- ( 2 x 2 ) Gaussian integration of all terms
QLR-O- . . . Y
0
Q\
Figure 3. Thin ( t / l = 0.01) square plate under central load (reduced integration only). Convergence study v,
 (C)
( i ) Simply supported (ii1 Clamped edge

0.0130 0-0070

0.0120 -Exact thin plate solution 0,0116 0.0060

0.0110 0-0050
Wc D
- Wc D
-
PI2 PI2
0~0100 / 0.0OLO

0.0090 1 0.0030
2 L 6 0 10 2 L 6 8 10
NES NES
CSR -n-(3.3) Gaussian integration of all terms
CLR-m- ,I I,

Figure 3. continued
QUADRILATERAL PLATE BENDING ELEMENTS 1071

?
1072 E. D. L. PUGH, E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZ

-J

e
SI

-
\
c

r4

51

-
0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

J
.
 ( C)
( i) Simp1 y supported ( i i 1 Clamped edge
0.0014

0.0013

0.0042

0,0039

04037
10'' 10-2 IO-~ lo-'
'11
Q L R -(2 x 2 ) Gaussian integration of all terms
QLN -----( 3 x 3 1 . . .
Figure 4. continued

Y
0
4
w
1074 E. D. L. PUGH, E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZ

o-.
Yl=
--
0
.
u-
o =

0 0 0 ~ 0 0 0 0
0 I*
 (El
(i Simply supported ( i i ) Clamped edge

lo-’ 10-2 10-3 lo4

CLR ) -.-.-. ( 3 x 3 ) Gaussian integration of all terms

C LN (4x4) - . . . .
I

Figure 4. continued
1076 E. D. L. PUGH, E. HINTON AND 0.C. ZIENKIEWICZ

L QS OL cs

CL
Figure 5 . Distorted mesh shapes

converge to the true solution as the mesh is refined, but with QLR very erratic results are
obtained due to the formulation of a mechanism. Consequently some may feel that the slightly
stiffer elements QLN and CLN should perhaps be adopted for practical use to guard against
the possible formation of mechanisms, but as the case discussed is distinctly pathological in
most applications QLR would be optimal.
When elements of the quadrilateral type are distorted some of the arguments justifying their
performance characteristics are not completely valid. Experiments reported in Figure 5 show
however that little loss in accuracy is indicated even with quite large element distortions.

CONCLUSIONS
In the numerical tests reported several convergence plots were obtained indicating that in
general the appropriate order of convergence is obtained with mesh refinement. This is not the
case for the plates with central concentrated loads where due to the presence of a ~ingularity'~
identical convergence rates are obtained for the quadratic and cubic elements.
The elements described here were tested additionally in a number of free vibration and
transient dynamic problems and again reduced integration leads to improved performance.
One point of some importance should however be noted. This is related to the critical time
step length which must be evaluated when an explicit central difference time-stepping scheme
is used together with a special mass lumping scheme.zo'21The critical time step is estimated for
homogeneous plates by an expression derived by Tsui and Tongz2,

where L, is the minimum distance between any two nodes in the finite element mesh.
Numerical studies indicate the correction factors C, given in Table IV for the various elements.
The important point is that the critical time step length for QL is 1.40 times that of QS which
has been favoured previously.
 QUADRILATERAL PLATE BENDING ELEMENTS 1077

Table IV. The critical time step length correction factor for
quadrilateral plate bending elements using the central
difference time-stepping scheme
~~ ~ ~~~~~

C
Correction factor for critical
Element time step length

L 1.0
QS 0.7
QL 1.0
cs 0.8
CL 0-85

Furthermore, the introduction of a 3 X 3 Lobatto integration rule for QLR23 leads to a

consistent mass matrix with only positive terms on the leading diagonal-all other terms being
equal to zero.
The results indicated here have important implications for the related shell elements and it
seems likely that a considerable improvement in performance may be obtained by the rela-
tively small cost of introducing QL and CL elements in place of the QS element now in
widespread use as a result of experiments reported in Reference 4.

Table V. Comparison of the central deflection W of a uniformly loaded square

plate for distorted and undistorted elements

t / l = 0.1 t/l = 0.01

Element Undistorted Distorted Undistorted Distorted

0.00267
1 0.00420 0.00361 0.00397
0*00314*

2 a 0.00427 0.00426 0.00402

0.00332

0.00397

3 a 0.00428 0.00426 040407 0.00400

0.00335
4 0.00426 0.00420 0.00385
0.00389

5 8 0-00427 0.00427 0.00408 0.00404

Exact 0.00427 0.00406

Simply supported
1078 E. D. L. PUGH. E. HINTON AND 0. C. ZIENKIEWICZ

Table V. continued

t / l = 0.1 t / r = 0.01

Element Undistorted Distorted Undistorted Distorted

1 a 0-00146 0.00147 0.0012 1

0.00069

0.00129

2 a 0.00150 0.00 152 0.00078

0.00071

0.00126

3 a 0.00151 0.00151 0.00128 0.00123

0.00077
4 H”H 0.00148 0.00148 0.00082
rn 0.00123

5 0.00150 0.00150 0.00127 0.00126

Exact 0.00150 0.00127

Clamped
* Value obtained using optimum y value

AUTHORS NOTE AT PROOF STAGE

Since the authors submitted this paper several pertinent paper^^^-*^ on this topic have been or
are about to be published and the authors themselves have continued their work on this topic.
From this work it appears that selective rather than reduced integration should be recom-
mended as it is safer and less likely to lead to mechanisms or near mechanisms. A recent
development known as the ‘heterosis’ element” does not lock or possess unwanted zero
energy modes. This element is selectively integrated and has Lagrangian quadratic shape
functions for 0, and 0, and serendipidity quadratic shape function for w. The authors believe
that it may well be the optimal element of the series. Its one minor disadvantage, the fact that
it has different degrees-of-freedom per node, can be circumvented easily. The authors suggest
that it should be implemented as a constrained 9-noded hierarchical element.**

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