A FINITE ELEMENT METHOD FOR STIFFENED PLATES

Ricardo Dur an
1
, Rodolfo Rodrguez
2
and Frank Sanhueza
3
Abstract. The aim of this paper is to analyze a low order nite element method for a stiened
plate. The plate is modeled by Reissner-Mindlin equations and the stiener by Timoshenko beams
equations. The resulting problem is shown to be well posed. In the case of concentric stieners it
decouples into two problems, one for the in-plane plate deformation and the other for the bending
of the plate. The analysis and discretization of the rst one is straightforward. The second one
is shown to have a solution bounded above and below independently of the thickness of the plate. A
discretization based on DL3 nite elements combined with ad-hoc elements for the stiener is proposed.
Optimal order error estimates are proved for displacements, rotations and shear stresses for the plate
and the stiener. Numerical tests are reported in order to assess the performance of the method.
These numerical computations demonstrate that the error estimates are independent of the thickness,
providing a numerical evidence that the method is locking-free.
1991 Mathematics Subject Classication. 65N30, 74K10, 74K20.
.
Introduction
A stiened plate is a plate reinforced with ribs to increase it capacity to resist loads. Such plates are used
typically in buildings, hulls of ships, aircraft and many other applications in the structural engineering.
Dierent models of stiened plates have been used. See for instance [17] for a discussion of several simple
engineering models and further references. Another approach has been proposed in [20]. It consists of coupling
Kirchho-Love equations for the plate with Euler-Bernoulli equations for the stiener. The constraint between
both structures is imposed by means of Lagrange multipliers. A particular nite element method is proposed.
Numerical experiments demonstrate the eectiveness of this approach although no analysis is given. The same
problem has been analyzed in [11] based in a model proposed in [18]. In this case (
1
elements are proposed
for the plate combined with {
2
{
3
elements for the beam. A domain decomposition technique is proposed for
the solution of the resulting algebraic problem.
An alternative modeling approach consists of using Reissner-Mindlin equations for the plate and Timoshenko
beam equations for the stiener. This model has been considered in [19], where an elementary nite element
method is proposed. However this method is shown to suer from locking.
Locking consists in that very unsatisfactory results are obtained when the thickness is small with respect to
the other dimension of the structure. From the point of view of the numerical analysis, locking reveals itself in
Keywords and phrases: stiened plates, Reissner-Mindlin model, Timoshenko beam, nite elements, error estimates, locking.
1
Departamento de Matematica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; e-mail:
rduran@uba.ar
2
CI
2
MA, Departamento de Ingeniera Matematica, Universidad de Concepcion, Chile; e-mail: rodolfo@ing-mat.udec.cl
3
Escuela de Obras Civiles, Universidad Andres Bello, Concepci on, Chile; e-mail: fsanhueza@unab.cl
2 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

that the a priori estimates depends on the thickness of the structure in a such way that they degenerate when
this parameter become small.
Several nite elements have been proposed to avoid locking in Reissner-Mindlin equations (see [7] for a review
on this subject). A typical locking-free nite element method, MITC9, which was introduced in [5], is proposed
in [17] to discretize the stiened plate equations. These elements are combined with standard quadratic element
for the stiener. Once more, only numerical evidence of the performance of the method is reported.
In the present paper we use the same model, based on Reissner-Mindlin equations for the plate and Timo-
shenko equations for the stiener. We introduce the constraint between both structures by means of Lagrange
multipliers. We prove existence and uniqueness of solution to the resulting problem.
A particular case of stiened plates is when the mid-line of the stiener lies on the mid-surface of the plate.
In this case the plate is known as concentrically stiened and the problem decomposes into two simpler problems
as it happens for unstiened plates: the in-plane and the bending plate problems. The analysis of the former is
quite simple since it leads to equations independent of the plate thickness. This is not the case with the bending
problem for the stiened plate.
In this case we consider a family of problems parametrized by the plate thickness t. We show that the
mechanical coecients of the stiener must be taken proportional to 1/t to obtain a signicant limit problem as
t goes to zero. We show that the solution of the stiened plate bending problem is bounded above and below far
from zero, independently of t. We also prove additional regularity of the solution, although not independently
of t.
For the discretization of the in-plane stiened plate we use standard linear elements, and the analysis is
straightforward. For the stiened plate bending problem we use a low order plate nite element, DL3 [12],
combined with {
2
{
1
elements for the stiener. The choice of these hybrid elements for the rod allows us to
impose the constraint in an simpler way.
We prove optimal order error estimates depending on higher order norms of the solution. These higher order
norms are the same that appear in the case of uncoupled plates and rods. In such a case they are bounded
independently of t. For the stiened plate bending problem we prove that these higher order norms are bounded,
although in principle these bounds could depend on t. We report a thorough numerical experimentation which
gives numerical evidence that this is not the case, allowing us to assess the locking-free character of the method.
The outline of the paper is as follows. In Section 1 we present the mathematical setting of the load problem
and prove existence and uniqueness. In Section 2 we analyze the concentrically stiened plate and prove stability
results, independent of the plate thickness for the in-plane and bending plate problems. In Section 3 we present
the nite element discretizations of both problems, we obtain error estimates for the former and prove that
the latter is well posed. In Section 4 we focus on the stiened loading plate problem for which we prove error
estimates. In Section 5 we report numerical results which allow us to assess the performance of the proposed
method. First, to validate our code, we apply it to a vibration problem which was also solved in [17]. Secondly
we apply the proposed method to a couple of problems whose limit behavior as the thickness becomes small
is known. Finally we apply it to a family of problems which allow us to demonstrate that the method is
locking-free.
1. The Problem of the Stiffened Plate
We consider a plate entirely crossed by a rod which act as a stiener. We restrict our attention to plates
with constant thickness and rods with uniform cross section. If the mid-line of the rod lies on the mid-surface
of the plate we call it a concentrically stiened plate. Otherwise it is called an eccentrically stiened plate (see
Figure 1). Most of this paper is devoted to concentrically stiened plates except for the present section which
is valid for eccentrically stiened plates too.
We consider a coordinate system such that the plate occupies the domain (t/2, t/2), where t > 0 is the
plate thickness and is the mid-surface of the plate, which is assumed to be polygonal. Moreover we assume that
the coordinate system is such that the mid-line of the rod lies on the plane y = 0. We denote by r the distance
between the rod mid-line and the plate mid-surface (r = 0 for concentrically stiened plates). The problem will
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 3
Figure 1. Transverse sections of concentrically (left) and eccentrically (right) stiened plates.
be posed in the two dimensional domain . We denote := (x, y) : y = 0,
1
:= (x, y) : y > 0
and
2
:= (x, y) : y < 0. We illustrate these denitions in Figure 2.

y
x

r
t
Figure 2. Geometry of a stiened plate
We restrict our analysis to the case of a plate modeled by Reissner-Mindlin equations and completely clamped
by its lateral boundary . We denote by u = (u
1
, u
2
), w and = (
1
,
2
) the mid-surface in-plane plate
displacements, the transverse displacements and the rotations, respectively. In its turn, u
s
, v
s
, w
s
denote the
stiener displacements in each coordinate direction and,
s
x
,
s
y
and
s
z
the stiener rotations with respect to
each axis.
To derive the equations of the stiened plate we will obtain rst an expression for its total energy. With
this aim, we add the corresponding energies of the plate and the stiener. However, for the latter, the shear
and bending terms in the plane of the plate are typically neglected (see [17]). We consider a load acting on
the plate, and denote by f its in-plane component, and by g the transverse one. Therefore, the total energy
including the works of the loads reads
E
t
:=
t
2
a
1
(u, u) +
t
3
2
a
2
(, ) +t

(w )
2
+

E
s
A

du
s
dx

2
+

E
s
I
yy

d
s
y
dx

2
+

s
J

d
s
x
dx

2
+

s
A

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

2
t

f u

gw.
In the above equation
a
1
(u, v) :=

E
(1 +) (1 2)
div u div v +

E
1 +
(u) : (v)
and
a
2
(, ) :=
1
12

E
1
2
div div +

E
1 +
() : ()

4 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

are the plane strain and plane stress bilinear forms, respectively. Above (v) :=
1
2
(Dv +Dv
t
) denotes the
linearized strain tensor and the coecients E and are the Young and Poisson moduli. Moreover :=
E
2(1+)
is the shear modulus of the plate. On the other hand, A is the area of the stiener section, I
yy
and I
zz
are the
second moments of area with respect to y- and z-axes, respectively, J := I
yy
+ I
zz
, E
s
and
s
the Young and
Poisson moduli of the stiener and
s
:=
E
s
2(1+
s
)
the shear modulus. Finally and
s
are the shear correction
factors for the plate and the rod, respectively . All the parameters are strictly positive constants. In the case
of the stiener this corresponds to a rod of arbitrary uniform section. Notice that, since the bending and shear
energy of the stiener have been neglected, the variables v
s
and
z
do not appear in the expression for the total
energy.
The appropriate functional spaces for displacements and rotations are the following: u, H
1
0
()
2
; w
H
1
0
(); u
s
, w
s
,
s
x
,
s
y
H
1
0
(). For the loads we consider f L
2
()
2
and g L
2
(). The stiened plate
problem is obtained by minimizing the total energy subject to the following kinematic constraints:
u
1
= u
s
r
1
, (1.1)
w = w
s
, (1.2)

2
=
s
x
, (1.3)

1
=
s
y
. (1.4)
Plate
Stiffener
z

1
= y
y

1
r
e
u
s
u
1
x
O
Figure 3. Geometric illustration of (1.5)
The constraint (1.2) comes from the fact that the plate and the rod are joint monolithically. Moreover, the
rotations of the plate and the stiener are the same in this model, which leads to (1.3) and (1.4). Finally (1.1)
can be easily deduced. In fact, using the notation from Figure 3, we have that
u
1
r +e
=
u
s
e
.
Therefore approximating
1
by
u
s
e
, straightforward computations lead to (1.1).
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 5
For the analysis, we introduce these constraints by means of Lagrange multipliers as follows:

1
(u
1
u
s
+r
1
) = 0, (1.5)

2
(w w
s
) = 0, (1.6)

3
(
2

s
x
) = 0, (1.7)

1
+
s
y

= 0. (1.8)
In the expressions above and throughout the paper, to simplify the notation, we write

:= ', `
H
1/2
()H
1/2
00
()
,
where in this case H
1/2
00
() :=

v[

: v H
1
0
()

endowed with the intrinsic norm of H

1/2
() (see [15]) and
H
1/2
() := H
1/2
00
()

, with L
2
() as pivot space.
Therefore, by minimizing E
t
subject to the constraints (1.1)(1.4), we arrive at the following clamped stiened
plate problem:
Find (U, ) HQ such that
A (U, V ) +B(V , ) =F (V ) V H, (1.9)
B(U, ) =0 Q, (1.10)
where
U :=

u, , w, u
s
, w
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

, V :=

v, , z, z
s
, v
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

H:= H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() H
1
0
()
4
:= (
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
) , := (
1
,
2
,
3
,
4
) Q:= H
1/2
()
4
,
A (U, V ) := ta
1
(u, v) +t
3
a
2
(, ) +t

(w ) (z ) +

E
s
A
du
s
dx
dv
s
dx
+

s
A

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

dz
s
dx
+
s
y

E
s
I
yy
d
s
y
dx
d
s
y
dx
+

s
J
d
s
x
dx
d
s
x
dx
,
B(U, ) :=

1
(u
1
u
s
+r
1
) +

2
(w w
s
) +

3
(
2

s
x
) +

1
+
s
y

,
F (V ) := t

f v +t

g z.
It is well known that the standard nite element methods applied to plates or rods are subject to numerical
locking. This means that they lead to unacceptable poor results for thin structures, unless the mesh size
is excessively small. The standard methodology to deal with locking-free methods is to consider a family of
problems depending on a small parameter: the plate thickness t. A method will be locking-free if the error
estimates do not deteriorate as the thickness becomes small. In our case, to avoid dealing with more than one
parameter, we restrict our attention to a stiener such that
A = t
2

A, I
yy
= t
4

I
yy
and J = t
4

J, (1.11)
6 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

where

A,

I
yy
and

J are constants. This corresponds to a rod with a section having width and height proportional
to t.
The stiening eect of such a rod tends to disappear as t tends to zero. To avoid this and obtaining a proper
limit problem, we assume that the physical parameters of the rod increase as t tends to zero. More precisely
we assume that
E
s
=

E
s
t
, (1.12)
where

E
s
is a xed constant. See [11] for a similar choice in the case of Kirchho stiened plates. Correspondingly
we dene
s
:=

E
s
1+
s
so that
s
=
s
. Scalings (1.11) and (1.12) ensure that if the loads are scaled as usual for
plates, then the solution of problem (1.9)(1.10) attains a limit as t tends to zero and that, in the limit problem,
the rod remains as a stiener. This will be clearly seen in the numerical examples of Section 5, where dierent
scalings of the physical parameters are considered. It is shown therein that (1.12) leads to a stiened limit
problem (Test 4) whereas other scalings lead either to a vanishing or to a perfectly rigid stiener (Section 5.2).
Using these scalings we write the bilinear form A as follows:
A (U, V ) = ta
1
(u, v) +t
3
a
2
(, ) +t

(w ) (z ) +t

E
s

A
du
s
dx
dv
s
dx
+t

s

s

A

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

dz
s
dx
+
s
y

+t
3

E
s

I
yy
d
s
y
dx
d
s
y
dx
+t
3

s

J
d
s
x
dx
d
s
x
dx
. (1.13)
We are interested in proving the existence and uniqueness of the solution to problem (1.9)(1.10). For this
purpose we will show the ellipticity of A (, ) in the whole space H and the inf-sup condition for B(, ) in
appropriate spaces.
Throughout the paper C will denote a strictly positive constant, not necessarily the same at each occurrence,
but always independent of t and the mesh-size h, which will be introduced in the next section.
For the existence and uniqueness, we consider the continuous problem (1.9)(1.10) with 0 < t 1 xed. The
bilinear form A (, ) is elliptic in H, with an ellipticity constant depending of t:
A (V , V ) C

t
3

||
2
1,
+|z|
2
1,
+

s
y

2
1,
+|z
s
|
2
1,
+|
s
x
|
2
1,

+t

|v|
2
1,
+|v
s
|
2
1,

.
In fact, the inequality above follows from
ta
1
(v, v) Ct |v|
2
1,
v H
1
0
()
2
, (1.14)
a
2
(, ) C ||
2
1,
H
1
0
()
2
, (1.15)
t
3
a
2
(, ) +t

[z [
2
Ct
3

||
2
1,
+|z|
2
1,

H
1
0
()
2
, z H
1
0
() ,
(1.16)
t

E
s

A

dv
s
dx

2
Ct |v
s
|
2
1,
v
s
H
1
0
() , (1.17)
t
3

s

J

d
s
x
dx

2
Ct
3
|
s
x
|
2
1,

s
x
H
1
0
() , (1.18)
t
3

E
s

I
yy

d
s
y
dx

2
+t

s

s

A

dz
s
dx
+
s
y

2
Ct
3

|z
s
|
2
1,
+

s
y

2
1,

s
y
, z
s
H
1
0
() . (1.19)
The inequalities (1.14) and (1.15) are consequences of Korns inequalities, whereas (1.16) is a classical result, (see
[6]). In its turn, (1.17)(1.19) follow from the scalings (1.11)(1.12), Poincare inequality and a straightforward
computation for

dz
s
dx
+
s
y

2
(see [1]).
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 7
On the other hand, B(, ) satises an inf-sup condition: There exists C > 0, independent of t, such that,
S := sup
0=V H
B(V , )
|V |
H
C ||
Q
Q.
To prove this, we consider separately each component of . For the rst one, we take v
1
H
1
0
() arbitrary
and the remaining components of V equal to zero, to write
S sup
0=v1H
1
0
()

1
v
1
|v
1
|
1,
C
1
sup
0=H
1/2
00
()

||
1/2,
= C |
1
|
1/2,
. (1.20)
For the second inequality, we have used the equivalence between the intrinsic norm of H
1/2
00
() and the norm
inf

|v|
1,
, v H
1
0
() : v[

(see [15]). The same arguments allow us to prove that

S C |
2
|
1/2,
and S C |
3
|
1/2,
. (1.21)
Finally, taking
1
H
1
0
() arbitrary and the remaining components of V equal to zero and using (1.20), we
have
|
4
|
1/2,
C

S +r |
1
|
1/2,

C (1 +r) S,
which, since r is bounded above, leads to
S C |
4
|
1/2,
.
The inequality above together with (1.21) and (1.20) allow us to prove the inf-sup condition for B. This
condition and the global ellipticity of A allow us to use the standard theory for mixed problems (see [6]) to
conclude the following theorem:
Theorem 1.1. For any t > 0 xed, problem (1.9)(1.10) has a unique solution (U, ) HQ.
Remark 1.2. Solution to problem (1.9)(1.10) is bounded in terms of |F|
H
. However, in principle, this
bound is not necessarily uniform with respect to t, since the ellipticity and continuity constants of the bilinear
form A depend on dierent powers of the thickness (see [6, Prop. II.1.3]).
2. Concentrically stiffened plates
The analysis of the previous section is valid for concentrically as well as eccentrically stiened plates. For
the latter, in-plane and transverse terms are fully coupled and each one involve dierent scales with respect to
the thickness. In this regard, this resembles what happens in the shell problem, for which the analysis is much
less mature than for plates.
This is the reason why, from now on, we restrict our attention to concentrically stiened plates (i.e, r = 0, see
Figure 2). In this case, the plate problem decomposes into two uncoupled ones: the in-plane and the bending
stiened plate problems, as it happens for non stiened plates. In fact, the in-plane displacements u and u
s
relate with the remaining variables only through equation (1.5) which is part of (1.10) and this happen only if
r = 0. For r = 0 we are led to the following two uncoupled problems, the rst one for the in-plane terms and
the second one for the bending terms:
Find (u, u
s
) H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() and
1
H
1/2
() such that
ta
1
(u, v) +t

E
s

A
du
s
dx
dv
s
dx
+

1
(v
1
v
s
) = t

f v (v, v
s
) H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() , (2.1)

1
(u
1
u
s
) = 0
1
H
1/2
() . (2.2)
8 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

Find

, w, w
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() H
1
0
()
3
and (
2
,
3
,
4
) H
1/2
()
3
such that
t
3
a
2
(, ) +t

(w ) (z ) +t
3

E
s

I
yy
d
s
y
dx
d
s
y
dx
+t
3

s

J
d
s
x
dx
d
s
x
dx
+t

s

s

A

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

dz
s
dx
+
s
y

2
(z z
s
) +

3
(
2

s
x
) +

1
+
s
y

= t

gz

, z, z
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() H
1
0
()
3
, (2.3)

2
(w w
s
) +

3
(
2

s
x
) +

1
+
s
y

= 0 (
2
,
3
,
4
) H
1/2
()
3
. (2.4)
From now on, to simplify a bit the notation, we set all the following constants equal to one:

A,

I
yy
,

J, ,
s
,

E
s
,
s
, as well as E (which appears in the denition of a
1
and a
2
). Moreover, we consider values of t ranging
in (0, 1]. Since these constants have been assumed to be independent of t, this does not aect any subsequent
asymptotic analysis. Moreover to obtain a family of problems uniformly stable with respect to t, we consider a
transverse load proportional to t
2
, namely
g = gt
2
(2.5)
with g independent of t. Finally, it is also convenient for the analysis to rescale the Lagrange multipliers
according to the scales of the dierent problems in which they appear:

1
=

1
t and
i
=

i
t
3
, i = 2, 3, 4. (2.6)
In what follows we analyze the resulting rescaled problems.
2.1. Stiened in-plane plate problem
Using the scaling (2.6) in (2.1)(2.2) and setting the constants equal to one, we obtain the following rescaled
problem, in which we omit the tildes in

1
to simplify the notation:
Find (u, u
s
) H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() and
1
H
1/2
() such that
a
1
(u, v) +

du
s
dx
dv
s
dx
+

1
(v
1
v
s
) =

f v (v, v
s
) H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() , (2.7)

1
(u
1
u
s
) = 0
1
H
1/2
() . (2.8)
This is a well posed problem completely independent of the thickness t. In fact, all the bilinear forms in this
problem are continuous and the following ellipticity result holds:
a
1
(v, v) +

dv
s
dx

2
C

|v|
2
1,
+|v
s
|
2
1,

(v, v
s
) H
1
0
() H
1
0
()
2
. (2.9)
Moreover, the arguments leading to (1.20) show that there exists C > 0, independent of t, such that
sup
0=(v,v
s
)H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
()

1
(v
1
v
s
)
|v|
1,
+|v
s
|
1,
C |
1
|
1/2,

1
H
1/2
() .
Thus, using Babuska-Brezzi theory (see [6]), we have the a-priori estimate
|u|
1,
+|u
s
|
1,
+|
1
|
1/2,
C |f|
0,
.
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 9
2.2. Stiened bending plate problem
In this case we use the scalings (2.5) and (2.6) in (2.3)(2.4). Thus if we denote
H := H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() H
1
0
()
3
and Q := H
1/2
()
3
,
and set the constants equal to one again, then we arrive at the following rescaled problem, in which we omit
the tildes in

i
, i = 2, 3, 4, and g:
Find

, w, w
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

H and (
2
,
3
,
4
) Q such that
a
2
(, ) +
1
t
2

(w ) (z ) +

d
s
x
dx
d
s
x
dx
+

d
s
y
dx
d
s
y
dx
+
1
t
2

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

dz
s
dx
+
s
y

2
(z z
s
) +

3
(
2

s
x
) +

1
+
s
y

gz

, z, z
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

H, (2.10)

2
(w w
s
) +

3
(
2

s
x
) +

1
+
s
y

= 0 (
2
,
3
,
4
) Q. (2.11)
This problem has a unique solution. In fact, this is a consequence of Theorem 1.1 and the equivalence of problem
(1.9)(1.10) with (2.7)(2.8) and (2.10)(2.11) in the case r = 0. However, this theorem does not imply that
the solution is bounded independently of t (cf. Remark 1.2). Our next goal is to prove that, for a non vanishing
g, the solution of problem (2.10)(2.11) is bounded above and below far from zero, both uniformly with respect
to t. More precisely, we will prove that for g = 0, there exist strictly positive constants C
1
and C
2
such that
the solution of this problem satises
C
1
||
1,
+|w|
1,
+|w
s
|
1,
+|
s
x
|
1,
+

s
y

1,
C
2
, (2.12)
for all t (0, 1].
With this aim we consider the space
W :=

(, z) H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() :
d
1
dx
,
d
2
dx
,
dz
dx
L
2
()

,
endowed with the norm
|(, z)|
2
W
:= ||
2
1,
+|z|
2
1,
+|
1
|
2
1,
+|
2
|
2
1,
+|z|
2
1,
, (, z) W.
Equation (2.11) is equivalent to.
w
s
= w,
s
x
=
2
and
s
y
=
1
on , (2.13)
which in its turn implies that (, w) W. Using this and testing (2.10) with functions satisfying the same
constraints, we arrive at
a
2
(, ) +
1
t
2

(w ) (z ) +

1
x

1
x
+

2
x

2
x
+
1
t
2

w
x

1

z
x

1

gz
(, z) W. (2.14)
Testing the above problem with (, z) = (, w) we obtain
a
2
(, ) +
1
t
2

(w )
2
+

1
x

2
+

1
x

2
+
1
t
2

w
x

1

2
=

gw. (2.15)
10 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

On the other hand, from (1.16) we have that
||
2
1,
+|w|
2
1,
C

1
t
2
|w |
2
0,
+a
2
(, )

, (2.16)
whereas from (1.17) and (1.19) we have
|w|
2
1,
+|
1
|
2
1,
+|
2
|
2
1,
C

1
t
2

w
x

1

2
0,
+

1
x

2
+

2
x

. (2.17)
Therefore, adding (2.16) and (2.17) and using (2.15), we obtain
||
2
1,
+|w|
2
1,
+|w|
2
1,
+|
1
|
2
1,
+|
2
|
2
1,
C

gw,
from which it follows that
||
1,
+|w|
1,
+|w|
1,
+|
1
|
1,
+|
2
|
1,
C
2
, (2.18)
with C
2
only depending on g and the domain .
To prove the other estimate in (2.12), we observe that the solution (, w) W to problem (2.14) is the
minimum in W of the energy functional E
t
(, z) dened by
E
t
(, z) :=
1
2

a
2
(, ) +
1
t
2

(z )
2
+

1
x

2
+

2
x

2
+
1
t
2

z
x

1

gz. (2.19)
Consider the following closed subspace of W:
W
0
:= (, z) W : z = =

(z, z) , z H
2
0
() :

2
z
xy
,

2
z
x
2
L
2
()

.
For (, z) W
0
, the associated energy reads
E
t
(, z) :=
1
2

a
2
(z, z) +

2
z
x
2

2
+

2
z
xy

gz. (2.20)
We note that
min
W
E
t
min
W0
E
t
< 0.
In fact, the rst inequality is clear, whereas for the second one we observe that the minimum of E
t
in W
0
is
attained at (, z) = (z
0
, z
0
) W
0
with z
0
satisfying
a
2
(z
0
, z) +

2
z
0
x
2

2
z
x
2
+

2
z
0
xy

2
z
xy
=

gz (z, z) W
0
. (2.21)
The bilinear form on the left hand side is bounded and elliptic in W
0
, the latter because of (1.15). Hence, from
the Lax-Milgram Lemma, there exists a unique solution of (2.21) (z
0
, z
0
) W
0
and it satises |(z
0
, z
0
)|
W

C |g|
0,
. Therefore, for g = 0, replacing (2.21) in (2.20), we have
min
(,z)W
E
t
(, z) min
(,z)W0
E
t
(, z) =
1
2

a
2
(z
0
, z
0
) +

2
z
0
x
2

2
+

2
z
0
xy

=: C
0
< 0.
(2.22)
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 11
Since min
W
E
t
(, z) is attained in the solution (, w) of problem (2.14), we use this equation in (2.19) and
(2.22) to write
a
2
(, ) +
1
t
2

(w )
2
+

1
x

2
+

2
x

2
+
1
t
2

w
x

1

2
2C
0
. (2.23)
On the other hand, testing (2.14) with (, z) = (, w), we have
1
t
2

(w )
2
+
1
t
2

w
x

1

2
=

gw a
2
(, )

1
x

2
x

gw

2
|g|
2
0,
+
1
2
|w|
2
0,
> 0. (2.24)
Substituting (2.24) in (2.23), choosing an adequate value of and using the boundedness of a
2
(, ), we arrive
at
||
1,
+|w|
1,
+|w|
1,
+|
1
|
1,
+|
2
|
1,
C
1
. (2.25)
Therefore, recalling (2.13), we obtain the following result as a consequence of (2.18) and (2.25)
Proposition 2.1. Given a non vanishing g L
2
(), let

, w, w
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

H be the solution of (2.10)(2.11).

Then, there exists strictly positive constants C
1
, C
2
independent of t (0, 1] such that
C
1
||
1,
+|w|
1,
+|w
s
|
1,
+|
s
x
|
1,
+

s
y

1,
C
2
.
In what follows we present some regularity results associated to the stiened bending plate problem. First,
we dene the shear terms in the plate and the stiener as follows:
:=
1
t
2
(w ) , (2.26)
:=
1
t
2

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

. (2.27)
Proposition 2.2. The solution of (2.10)(2.11) satises [
i
H
2
(
i
)
2
, w[
i
H
2
(
i
)
2
, i = 1, 2, and
s
x
,

s
y
, w
s
H
5/2
(). Moreover, [
i
H
1
(
i
)
2
, i = 1, 2, and H
3/2
().
Proof. Testing (2.10) with
s
x
H
1
0
() and setting to zero all the other test functions, we have

d
2

s
x
dx
2
=
3
H
1/2
() (2.28)
and hence
s
x
H
3/2
(). In a similar way, testing (2.10) with z
s
= 0 and
s
y
= 0, we obtain that H
1/2
()
and
s
y
H
3/2
(), respectively. Consequently, (2.27) yields w
s
H
3/2
(). Next we extend w
s
to the whole
domain in such a way that the extension belongs to H
2
of each subdomain
i
. More precisely, let w
0
H
1
0
()
be such that w
0
[
i
H
2
(
i
), i = 1, 2, (see [16, Theorem 1.5.2.8]) and
w
0
[

= w
s
.
Analogously, let
0
H
1
0
()
2
:
0
[
i
H
2
(
i
), i = 1, 2, and

0
[

s
y
,
s
x

.
12 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

Let

H
1
0
()
2
and w H
1
0
() be dened by
=

+
0
and w = w +w
0
. (2.29)
Since [

=
0
[

and w[

= w
0
[

, we have that

[
i
H
1
0
(
i
)
2
and w[
i
H
1
0
(
i
), i = 1, 2. Our next goal
is to show that (

[
i
, w[
i
) is the solution of a plate problem for which an additional regularity result holds.
With this aim, we take H
1
0
(
i
)
2
and z H
1
0
(
i
) and extend them by zero to . These extensions, that
we also denote and z, clearly satisfy H
1
0
()
2
and z H
1
0
(). If we take such and z with vanishing z
s
,

s
x
and
s
y
in (2.10), we obtain that
a
i
2
(, ) +
1
t
2

i
(w ) (z ) =

i
gz (, z) H
1
0
(
i
)
2
H
1
0
(
i
) , (2.30)
where
a
i
2
(, ) :=
1
12

i
E
1
2
div div +

i
E
1 +
() : ()

.
Therefore, using (2.29), we have that

[
i
H
1
0
(
i
)
2
and w[
i
H
1
0
(
i
) solve the following problem:
a
i
2

+
1
t
2

(z ) = a
i
2
(
0
, )
1
t
2

i
(w
0

0
) (z ) +

i
gz
=:

i
F +

i
Gz (, z) H
1
0
(
i
)
2
H
1
0
(
i
) .
Notice that F L
2
()
2
and G L
2
(), because
0
[
i
H
2
(
i
)
2
and w
0
[
i
H
2
(
i
). Hence, using the
regularity results of [2, Theorem 2.1], we have that (

, w) H
2
(
i
)
2
H
2
(
i
), which using (2.29) yields the
regularity for .
The next step is to prove additional regularity for and . With this aim, we observe rst that by using the
denition of in (2.26) and the regularity of and w we have that [
i
H
1
(
i
)
2
, i = 1, 2.
On the other hand, testing problem (2.30) with z H
1
0
(
i
) and = 0, we obtain that
div = g in
i
.
Therefore, testing (2.10) with z H
1
0
() and all the other variables set to zero, integrating by parts in each
subdomain
i
and using the equation above, we have that

[[ n]] z +

2
z = 0
where [[]] denotes the jump across . Consequently, from the regularity of , we obtain
2
H
1/2
(). Therefore,
testing (2.10) with z
s
H
1
0
() and all the other variables set to zero, we have that

=
2
and hence
H
3/2
(). Moreover, testing (2.30) with H
1
0
(
i
)
2
and z = 0, we obtain
div (()) = in
i
,
where () :=
1
12

E
1+
() +
E
1
2
div

is the plane-strain stress tensor. Thus, testing (2.10) with

H
1
0
()
2
and all the other test functions set to zero, integrating by parts in each subdomain
i
and using the
above equation, we arrive at

[[() n]]

(
3

2
+
4

1
) = 0.
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 13
Consequently, since [
i
H
2
(
i
), i = 1, 2, we obtain that
3
,
4
H
1/2
(). Therefore, from (2.28) and the
analogous expression for
s
y
, we obtain that
s
x
and
s
y
are in H
5/2
(). Finally from these regularity results,
(2.27) and the additional regularity of , we obtain w
s
H
5/2
() and conclude the proof.
Remark 2.3. According to Proposition 2.2, the solution of problem (2.10)(2.11) satises additional regularity.
However, we have not proved that the corresponding norms are bounded independently of t. Indeed, we have
used that
2
,
3
and
4
belong to H
1/2
(), which is true but we do not have bounds of |
2
|
1/2,
, |
3
|
1/2,
and |
4
|
1/2,
independent of t (cf. Remark 1.2). In spite of this, the numerical results in Section 5 seem to
suggest that such bounds should hold true.
3. The discrete problems
We consider separately the discretization of the stiened in-plane and bending problems. Let T
h
be a
regular family of triangulations consistent with , in the sense that, for all meshes, is a union of edges of
T
h
. Let T

h
be the partition induced by T
h
in . We assume that the family T
h
is such that

T

h

is quasi
uniform.
3.1. Stiened in-plane plate problem
We dene:
X
h
:=

z
h
H
1
0
() : z
h
[
T
{
1
T T
h

,
P
kh
:=

v
h
H
1
0
() : v
h
[

{
k
T

h

, k N,
where {
k
denotes the polynomials of degree at most k. Let X
h
:= X
h
X
h
. The discrete analogue to problem
(2.7)(2.8) reads:
Find (u
h
, u
s
h
) X
h
P
1h
and
1h
P
1h
such that
a
1
(u
h
, v
h
) +

du
s
h
dx
dv
s
h
dx
+

1h
(v
1h
v
s
h
) =

f v
h
(v
h
, v
s
h
) X
h
P
1h
, (3.1)

1h
(u
1h
u
s
h
) = 0
1h
P
1h
. (3.2)
Since X
h
H
1
0
()
2
and P
1h
H
1
0
(), by virtue of (2.9) we only need to prove the following inf-sup condition
to be able to apply the classical Babuska-Brezzi theory:
sup
0=(v
h
,v
s
h
)X
h
P
1h

h
(v
1h
v
s
h
)
|v
h
|
1,
+|v
s
h
|
1,
C |
h
|
1/2,

h
P
1h
.
To prove this, we will dene a Fortin operator

. With this aim we dene several auxiliary operators.
First let : L
2
() P
1h
be the L
2
-projection. Clearly we have that
| v|
0,
C |v|
0,
v L
2
() .
Moreover, it is a classical result (see [14, Lemma 1.131]) that
| v|
1,
C |v|
1,
v H
1
0
() , (3.3)
provided

T

h

is a quasi-uniform family of meshes. Consequently, using interpolation of Banach Spaces we

arrive at
| v|
1/2,
C |v|
1/2,
. (3.4)
14 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

Next, let I
SZ
: H
1
0
() X
h
be a Scott-Zhang interpolation operator (see [22]) such that if v H
1
0
() and
v[

P
1h
, then (I
SZ
v)[

= v[

.
On the other hand, let E : H
1/2
00
() H
1
0
() be a continuous right-inverse of the trace operator on .
Notice that
I
SZ
(Ev
h
) = v
h
v
h
P
1h
. (3.5)
Now we are in the a position to dene the Fortin operator

(v, v
s
) := ((I
SZ
(E ( ( v
1
[

))) , I
SZ
v
2
) , v
s
) .
As a consequence of (3.3), (3.4) and the boundedness of the operators E and I
SZ
, we have

(v, v
s
)

H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
()
C

|v|
1,
+|v
s
|
1,

(v, v
s
) H
1
0
()
2
H
1
0
() .
Moreover

satises the commuting diagram property. In fact, because of (3.5),

(v
1
I
SZ
(E ( ( v
1
[

))))
h
= 0
h
P
1h
.
Therefore

satises the assumptions of the Fortin lemma [14]. Consequently the Babuska-Brezzi theory (see
for instance [6]) allows us to prove the next theorem.
Theorem 3.1. Problem (3.1)(3.2) has a unique solution (u
h
, u
s
h
,
1h
) X
h
P
1h
P
1h
and there exists a
positive constant C such that, if (u, u
s
) is the solution to problem (2.7)(2.8), then
|u u
h
|
1,
+|u
s
u
s
h
|
1,
+|
1

1h
|
1/2,
C

inf
v
h
X
h
|u v
h
|
1,
+ inf
v
s
h
P
1h
|u
s
v
s
h
|
1,
+ inf

1h
P
1h
|
1

1h
|
1/2,

.
The error estimate above depends as usual on additional regularity of the solution to the continuous problem
(2.7)(2.8). In what follows we derive a simpler form of this problem. By testing (2.7) with v
s
H
1
0
() and
setting the other variables to zero we have

d
2
u
s
dx
2
=
1
H
1/2
()
and hence, u
s
H
3/2
(). Moreover, from (2.8), u
1
= u
s
on . On the other hand, using dierent test functions
in (2.7) it can be shown that
[[(u) n]]

1
0

(3.6)
where (u) :=
E
1+
(u) +
E
(1+)(12)
(div u)I is the plane-stress stress tensor. Therefore, u H
1
0
()
2
is the
solution to the following problem:
div ((u)) = f L
2
(
i
) , i = 1, 2,
u
1
= u
s
H
1/2
00
() H
3/2
() ,

u
2
n

= 0 on .
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 15
This can be seen as the coupling of two elliptic problems, one in each subdomain
i
, i = 1, 2, with a Dirichlet
boundary condition for the component u
1
and a transmission condition for u
2
. It seems reasonable to expect
additional regularity for the solution to this problem. In such a case,
1
=
E
2(1+)

u1
y
+
u2
x

would be more
regular, too.
3.2. The stiened bending plate problem
To discretize this problem we consider the DL3 element introduced in [12]. For each T T
h
, let
1
,
2
,
3
be its barycentric coordinates. We denote by
i
a unit tangent vector to the edge
i
= 0 and dene
p
1
=
2

1
, p
2
=
1

2
, p
3
=
1

3
. (3.7)
Let
Y
h
:=

H
1
0
()
2
: [
T
{
1
'p
1
, p
2
, p
3
` T T
h

,
W
h
:=

v H
1
0
() : v[
T
{
1
T T
h

,
P
0h
:=

L
2
() : [

{
0
T

h
:=

h
H
0
(rot, ) :
h
[
T
{
2
0
{
0

x
2
x
1

T T
h

,
the latter being the rotated Raviart-Thomas space (see [21]). Let be the rotated Raviart-Thomas interpolant
on this space (see [21] again). This operator is well dened in H
1
()
2
. Moreover for H
1
()
2
H
0
(rot, ),

h
and there holds
| |
0,
Ch||
1,
. (3.8)
Let : L
2
() P
0h
be the orthogonal projection onto P
0h
. It is well known that
|v v|
0,
Ch|v|
1,
v H
1
() . (3.9)
Let : L
2
() P
2h
be the orthogonal projection onto P
2h
.
Finally, let
H
h
:= Y
h
W
h
P
1h
P
1h
P
2h
and Q
h
:= P
1h
P
1h
P
2h
The discrete problem is dened as follows:
Find

h
, w
h
, w
s
h
,
s
xh
,
s
yh

H
h
and (
2h
,
3h
,
4h
) Q
h
such that
a
2
(
h
,
h
) +
1
t
2

(w
h

h
) (z
h

h
) +

s
xh
x

s
xh
x
+

s
yh
x
,

s
yh
x
+
1
t
2

z
s
h
x
+
s
yh

z
s
h
x
+
s
yh

2h
(z
h
z
s
h
) +

3h
(
2h

s
xh
)
+

4h

1h

s
yh

gz
h

h
, z
h
, z
s
,
s
xh
,
s
yh

H
h
, (3.10)

2h
(w
h
w
s
h
) +

3h
(
2h

s
xh
) +

4h

1h
+
s
yh

= 0 (
2h
,
3h
,
4h
) Q
h
. (3.11)
16 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

The existence and uniqueness of the solution to (3.10)(3.11) is obtained using the Babuska-Brezzi theory.
The ellipticity condition
a
2
(
h
,
h
) +
1
t
2

[z
h

h
[
2
+
1
t
2

z
s
h
x
+
s
yh

2
+

s
xh
x

2
+

s
yh
x

2
C

|
h
|
2
1,
+|z
h
|
2
1,
+|z
s
h
|
2
1,
+|
s
xh
|
2
1,
+

s
yh

2
1,

h
, z
h
, z
s
,
s
xh
,
s
yh

H
h
,
is obtained from the ellipticity of the discrete unstiened plate problem (see for instance [12]), the ellipticity of
the discrete beam problem (see for instance [1]) and Poincare inequality in H
1
0
().
On the other hand, it is simple to show that the discrete inf-sup condition holds true (with a positive constant
in principle depending of h) if and only if
sup
0=(,z
h
,z
s
h
,
s
xh
,
s
yh
)H
h

2h
(z
h
z
s
h
) +
3h
(
2h

s
xh
) +
4h

1h
+
s
yh

> 0 (
2h
,
3h
,
4h
) Q
h
.
The latter can be proved by taking
2h
= z
h
[

z
s
h
,
3h
=
2h
[

s
xh
and
4h
=
1h
[

+
s
yh
. Thus we arrive
at the following lemma.
Lemma 3.2. Problem (3.10)(3.11) has a unique solution.
4. Error estimate
Let us introduce the discrete shear terms approximating (2.26) and (2.27):

h
:=
1
t
2
(w
h

h
) , (4.1)

h
:=
1
t
2

z
s
h
x
+
s
yh

. (4.2)
The rst step to obtain error estimates is to write an error equation.
With this aim, we test the continuous problem (2.10)(2.11) and the discrete problem (3.10)(3.11) with

h
, z
h
, z
s
h
,
s
xh
,
s
yh

H
h
to obtain
a
2
(
h
,
h
) +

(
h
) (z
h

h
) +

(
h
)

z
s
x
+
s
y

s
y
x

s
yh
x

s
y
x
+

s
x
x


s
xh
x

s
x
x
+

(
2

2h
) (z z
s
)
+

(
3

3h
) (
2

s
x
) +

(
4

4h
)

1

s
y

(
h

h
) +

s
yh

s
yh

h
, z
h
, z
s
h
,
s
xh
,
s
yh

H
h
, (4.3)

2h
(w w
h
(w
s
w
s
h
)) +

3h
(
2

2h
(
s
x

s
xh
))
+

4h

1

1h
+
s
y

s
yh

= 0 (
2h
,
3h
,
4h
) Q
h
. (4.4)
The following lemma well be used to prove the error estimates.
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 17
Lemma 4.1. Given

Y
h
, w W
h
, let := t
2

h
,

s
x
:=

P
1h
,

s
y
:=

P
2h
,
w
s
:= w[

P
1h
and := t
2

d w
s
dx
+

s
y

P
0h
. Then,

1,
+t |
h
|
0,
+t |
h
|
0,
+

s
x

s
xh

1,
+

s
y

s
yh

1,
C

1,
+t | |
0,
+t | |
0,
+

s
x

s
x

1,
+

s
y

s
y

1,
+h||
0,
+h||
0,

.
(4.5)
Proof. Let

R : H
1/2
() P
1h
and

R : H
1/2
() P
2h
be the projectors respectively dened for any
H
1/2
() by

h
= 0
h
P
1h
and

h
= 0
h
P
2h
.
Using this in the error equation (4.3) we have
a
2

h
,
h

(
h
) (z
h

h
) +

(
h
)

z
s
h
x
+
s
yh

s
x
x


s
xh
x

s
xh
x
+

s
y
x

s
yh
x

s
yh
x
=

R
2

2h

(z
h
z
s
h
)

R
3

3h

1h

s
yh

R
4

4h

(
2h
+
s
xh
) +a
2

,
h

( ) (z
h

h
) +

( )

z
s
h
x

s
yh

s
x
x

d
s
x
dx

s
xh
x
+

s
y
x

d
s
y
dx

s
yh
x
+

(
h

h
) +

s
yh

s
yh

.
Now, take
h
=

h
, z
h
= ww
h
, z
s
= w
s
w
s
h
,
s
xh
=

s
x

s
xh
and
s
yh
=

s
y

s
yh
and use that w
s
= w[

s
x
=

s
y
=

and (4.4), to obtain

R
2

2h

( w w
h
( w
s
w
s
h
)) +

R
3

3h

1

1h

s
x

s
xh

R
4

4h

2

2h
+

s
y

s
yh

= 0.
18 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

Hence, using the ellipticity of a
2
(cf. (1.15)), the denition of and , (4.1), (4.2) and a little of algebra, we
obtain

2
1,
+t
2
|
h
|
2
0,
+t
2
|
h
|
2
0,
+

s
y

s
yh

2
1,
+

s
x

s
xh

2
1,
C

2
1,
+t
2
| |
2
0,
+t
2
| |
2
0,
+C
2

s
y

s
y

2
1,
+

s
x

s
x

2
1,

+||
0,

0,
+||
0,

s
y

s
yh

s
y

s
yh

0,
.
where we have used (3.8) and (3.9) to obtain the last two terms. Thus we conclude the lemma.
Next step consists in dening

and w so that appropriate error estimates hold for the right hand side of
(4.5). With this aim we will use the Lagrange interpolant I
L
of dierent functions
1
,
2
, w,
s
x
, etc. This
interpolant is well dened because of the additional regularity proved in Proposition 2.2. Moreover, for each
edge of the triangulation, let t

be a unit tangent vector and b

the piecewise quadratic bubble associated to

, so that b

is a tangential bubble as dened in (3.7).

To dene

we use the Lagrange interpolant of enriched with quadratic tangential bubbles so that, for all
edges ,

. (4.6)
Namely

:= I
L
() +

, (4.7)
with
c

:=
6
[[

( I
L
) t

. (4.8)
Based on results from [15], it was shown in [12] that

1,i
Ch||
2,i
, i = 1, 2. (4.9)
On the other hand, we use the standard Lagrange interpolant of w to dene w:
w := I
L
w. (4.10)
Our next goal is to estimate | |
0,
. Notice that, in spite of the fact that / H
1
()
2
, its rotated Raviart-
Thomas interpolant is well dened because [
i
H
1
(
i
)
2
and the tangential components of [
1
and [
2
coincide on (see [21]). Moreover, an error estimate similar to (3.8) also holds in this case; namely,
| |
0,
Ch

||
1,1
+||
1,2

. (4.11)
On the other hand another well known property of the rotated Raviart-Thomas interpolant is that (w) =
(I
L
w) := w (see [21] again). Therefore,
:=
1
t
2
( w ) =
1
t
2
(w ) = .
Next, for

s
x
, since
s
x
=
2
(cf. 2.13), we have that

s
x
:=

= (I
L

2
)[

= I
L

s
x
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 19
and hence

s
x

s
x

1,
Ch|
s
x
|
2,
. (4.12)
Analogously, for

s
y
we have

s
y
:=

= (I
L

1
)[

h
c

.
Since
s
y
=
1
[

(cf. (2.13)), there holds

s
y

s
y

1,

s
y
I
L

s
y

1,
+

l T

h
c
l
b
l

1,
.
The rst term on the right hand side above is bounded by means of the standard estimates for the Lagrange
interpolant. For the second one we write

h
c

2
1,
=

h
[c

[
2
|b

|
2
1,
.
Straightforward computations show that |b

|
2
1,

C
||
. On the other hand, for the coecients c

we use that
t

=
1
=
s
y
on . Consequently, I
L
t

= I
L

s
y
, and we have from (4.8)
[c

[
2

36
[[

s
y
I
L

s
y

2
0,
C [[
3

s
y

2
2,
. (4.13)
Altogether, we obtain

s
y

s
y

1,
Ch

s
y

2,
. (4.14)
It remains to estimate the term | |
0,
in (4.5). With this aim we will show that = . First, it is
simple to show that

dw
s
dx
=
d
dx
(I
L
w
s
) . (4.15)
Hence, from (2.13), (4.10) and the denition of w
s
given in Lemma 4.1, we obtain

dw
s
dx
=
d w
s
dx
.
Secondly we will show that

s
y
=

s
y
. (4.16)
To prove this it is enough to show that

s
y
=

s
y
for all T

h
, which follows from (2.13), (4.6) and the
denition of

s
y
in Lemma 4.1:

s
y
=

1
=

1
=

s
y
.
Therefore, (4.16) and (4.15) lead to
=
1
t
2

d w
s
dx
+

s
y

=
1
t
2

dw
s
dx
+
s
y

= .
Consequently, from (3.9) we have
| |
0,
Ch||
1,
. (4.17)
Now, we are in a position to prove the following theorem.
20 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

Theorem 4.2. Let

, w, w
s
,
s
x
,
s
y

and

h
, w
h
, w
s
h
,
s
xh
,
s
yh

be the solutions of problems (2.10)(2.11) and

(3.10)(3.11), respectively. Let , ,
h
and
h
be as dened in (2.26), (2.27), (4.1) and (4.2), respectively.
Then
|
h
|
1,
+|
s
x

s
xh
|
1,
+

s
y

s
yh

1,
+t |
h
|
0,
+t |
h
|
0,
Ch

||
2,1
+||
2,2
+t ||
1,1
+t ||
1,2
+||
0,
+|
s
x
|
2,
+

s
y

2,
+t ||
1,
+||
0,

. (4.18)
Proof. Let

and w be as dened in (4.7) and (4.6), respectively. Let ,

s
x
,

s
y
and as in Lemma 4.1. Adding
and subtracting these terms on the left hand side of (4.18), using triangular inequality, Lemma 4.1 and estimates
(4.9), (4.11), (4.12), (4.14) and (4.17), we conclude the proof.
Corollary 4.3. Under the same assumptions as in Theorem 4.2, there holds
|w w
h
|
1,
+|w
s
w
s
h
|
1,
Ch

||
2,1
+||
2,2
+t ||
1,1
+t ||
1,2
+||
0,
+|
s
x
|
2,
+

s
y

2,
+t ||
1,
+||
0,

. (4.19)
Proof. From (2.26) and (4.1) we have
w w
h
= t
2
(
h
) +
h
.
Hence,
[w w
h
[
1,
t
2
|
h
|
0,
+| |
0,
+|(
h
)|
0,
t
2
|
h
|
0,
+| |
0,
+C |
h
|
1,
,
the latter because of (3.8). Analogously, from (2.27) and (4.2) we have
dw
s
dx

dw
s
h
dx
= t
2
(
h
) +
s
y

s
yh
and hence
[w
s
w
s
h
[
1,
t
2
|
h
|
0,
+

s
y

s
y

0,
+

s
y

s
yh

0,
t
2
|
h
|
0,
+

s
y

s
y

0,
+

s
y

s
yh

0,
.
Therefore, the corollary follows from these estimates, (3.8), (3.9) and Theorem 4.2.
5. Numerical Experiments
In this section we report some numerical results obtained with a code which implements the method proposed
above. The aim of the numerical experimentation is to assess the performance of the method. The error
estimate from Theorem 4.2 involves higher order norms of quantities which are known to be bounded (cf.
Proposition 2.2). These bound are independent of the thickness t for uncoupled plates [2] and rods [3]. However
analogous thickness-independent bounds have not been proved for a stiened plate. Therefore, one of the goals
of the reported numerical experimentation is to test whether the method is actually locking-free. To solve
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 21
Figure 4. Square plate. Finite element mesh (N = 4).
problem (3.10)(3.11), rst we eliminate the Lagrange multipliers and impose the constraints by writing the
variables corresponding to the stiener in terms of those of the plate. In fact, (3.11) implies that
w
s
h
= w
h
,
s
xh
=
2h
,
s
yh
=
1h
on .
Thus, problem (3.10)(3.11) turns out to be equivalent to the following one, in which we included again the
physical constants that have been set to 1 for the analysis:
t
3
a
2
(
h
,
h
) +t

(w
h

h
) (z
h

h
) +

E
s
I
yy

1h
x

1h
x
+

s
A

z
h
x

1h

z
h
x

1h

s
J

2h
x

2h
x
= t

gz
h
, (z
h
,
h
) W
h
Y
h
. (5.1)
Let us remark that the stiness matrix of the problem can be easily obtained by static condensation from
the separate corresponding stiness matrices of the plate and the rod. In all tests, we considered a square plate
of side length 60 cm. The stiener crosses the plate joining the mid-points of two opposite edges.
We use uniform meshes obtained by rening the coarse one shown in Figure 4. The parameter N represents
the number of elements on each side of the plate. We took =
s
= 1 as correction factors in the plate and the
stiener, respectively, for all the tests.
5.1. Test 1: A free vibration problem for a clamped stiened plate
Since no analytical solution for the load problem of the stiened plate is available to compare with, we used
a vibration problem solved in [17] by means of MITC9 elements.
For the vibration problem, we have to consider the mass terms of the plate and the stiener instead of the
load terms. Thus, the vibration problem consists in nding
h
> 0 and (w
h
,
h
) W
h
Y
h
such that
t
3
a
2
(
h
,
h
) +t

(w
h

h
) (z
h

h
) +

E
s
I
yy

1h
x

1h
x
+

s
A

z
h
x

1h

z
h
x

1h

s
J

2h
x

2h
x
=
2
h

w
h
z
h
+
t
3
12

h

h
+

s
Aw
h
z
h
+

s
I
yy

1h

1h
+

s
J
2h

2h

(z
h
,
h
) W
h
Y
h
,
where
h
is the unknown vibration frequency and and
s
are the densities of the plate and the stiener,
respectively. We applied the method to a square clamped stiened plate with the same physical and geometrical
22 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

parameters as in [17]:
t = 1 mm,
E = E
s
= 68.85 10
9
Pa,
=
s
= 0.34,
=
s
= 2780 kg/m
3
,
A = 67 mm
2
,
I
yy
= 2290 mm
4
,
J = 22.33 mm
4
.
Table 1 shows the six lowest vibration frequencies computed with the method on four successively rened
meshes. The table includes extrapolated frequencies and the order of convergence in powers of h estimated by
means of a least squares tting. It also includes the frequencies computed in [17] with MITC9 elements.
Table 1. Test 1: Lowest vibration frequencies of a square clamped stiened plate.
Mode N = 16 N = 32 N = 48 N = 64 order extrapolated [17]
1 50.919 50.527 50.452 50.426 1.97 50.392 50.36
2 64.266 63.810 63.719 63.687 1.89 63.641 63.65
3 76.221 75.298 75.124 75.063 1.97 74.982 74.95
4 86.656 85.694 85.510 85.445 1.95 85.358 85.36
5 116.762 114.468 114.022 113.865 1.93 113.650 113.63
6 123.714 121.363 120.895 120.729 1.89 120.493 120.52
We observe a very good agreement between the values computed with both methods. On the other hand,
a quadratic order of convergence can be clearly appreciated. Since typically the order of convergence of the
eigenvalues doubles that of the load problem, this corresponds to O(h) for the latter, which is the optimal one
for the elements we have used.
5.2. Test 2: Robustness with respect to the stiener properties
The aim of this test is to assess the robustness of the method with respect to the physical parameters of the
stiener.
We considered two asymptotics with respect to the thickness t. In the rst one, the stiener rigidity increases
as t becomes smaller. As discussed above, the proper scaling for attaining a limit as t goes to zero is to take E
s
proportional to 1/t (cf. (1.12)). Instead we used E
s
:= E/t
2
for this experiment, so that, in the limit as t goes
to zero, this problem corresponds to that of a clamped plate also clamped along its mid-line .
The material and the stiener cross-sectional properties were taken as follows:
A = t
2
,
I
yy
= t
4
/12,
J = t
4
/6,
E = 68.85 10
9
Pa,
=
s
= 0.34.
The load was taken as constant on the whole plate:
g = 10
6
N/m
4
t
2
.
We took various decreasing values of the thickness ranging from 10 to 0.01 mm. We compared the transverse
displacement w
h
and the rotation
h
computed with the present method with those corresponding to the plate
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 23
clamped along , which were computed by DL3 elements [12]. We denote the latter by w
c
h
and
c
h
. We measure
the deviation between both models by means of the relative dierences
[w
h
w
c
h
[
1,
[w
c
h
[
1,
and
[
h

c
h
[
1,
[
c
h
[
1,
computed on the mesh corresponding to N = 64. It can be clearly seen that the relative dierences decreases
linearly with the thickness t. Moreover, this experiment shows that the stiened plate behaves as expected in
this limit case.
Table 2. Test 2: Comparison of stiened plates with an almost rigid and a perfectly rigid stiener.
Thickness (m)
|w
h
w
c
h
|
1,
|w
c
h
|
1,
|
h

c
h
|
1,
|
c
h
|
1,
10
2
2.6914 10
2
1.6122 10
2
10
3
2.8980 10
3
1.6167 10
3
10
4
2.9001 10
4
1.6178 10
4
10
5
2.9351 10
5
1.6279 10
5
As a second experiment we took E
s
= E and the same values as above for A, I
yy
, J, E and . In this case,
as t becomes smaller, the eect of the stiener tends to disappear. In fact, A = t
2
corresponds to a rod section
with width and height proportional to t. In the limit as t goes to zero this problem correspond to that of an
unstiened plate. Once more we took values of t ranging from 10 to 0.01mm and we compared the transverse
displacements and the rotations computed with the present method with those of the unstiened plate computed
by DL3 elements. We denote the latter by w
f
h
and
f
h
. We report in Table 3 the relative dierences between
both models computed again on the mesh corresponding to N = 64.
Table 3. Test 2: Comparison of a stiened plate with a very soft stiener and a plate without a stiener.
Thickness (m)
|w
h
w
f
h
|
1,
|w
f
h
|
1,
|
h

f
h
|
1,
|
f
h
|
1,
10
2
1.4452 10
2
1.5399 10
2
10
3
1.4624 10
3
1.5650 10
3
10
4
1.4643 10
4
1.5687 10
4
10
5
1.5688 10
5
1.6183 10
5
Once more, it can be clearly observed a linear dependence with respect to t. Once more, the behavior of this
softly stiened plates agrees with what is expected.
On the other hand, Tables 2 and 3 show that the method is thoroughly robust with respect to the physical
parameters of the stiener. Moreover, in both cases the results do not deteriorate as t becomes smaller, which
suggests that the method is locking-free.
5.3. Test 3: Testing the locking-free character of the method
The main goal of this test is to conrm experimentally that the method is locking-free. In this case we took
the scaling E
s
:= E/t, which allows us to achieve a well posed limit problem. We computed a very accurate
approximation of the solution with the mesh corresponding to N = 64 and we took it as an exact solution.
We denote by w
e
the corresponding transverse displacement. We estimated the error of the numerical solutions
computed on coarse meshes (N = 8, 12, 16) by means of [w
e
w
h
[
1,
.
We report in Table 4 the values of [w
e
w
h
[
1,
for dierent meshes and decreasing values of the thickness.
We also include the orders of convergence estimated by means of a least squares tting and, in the last row, the
extrapolated limit values corresponding to t = 0.
24 R. DUR

AN, R. RODR

IGUEZ AND F. SANHUEZA

Table 4. Test 3: Testing the locking-free character of the method. Computed error
[w
e
w
h
[
1,
10
8
for dierent plate thickness and meshes.
Thickness (m) N = 8 N = 12 N = 16 N = 20 order
10
2
0.48539537 0.32111497 0.26220361 0.17661659 1.05
10
3
0.48461630 0.32097671 0.26194608 0.17665166 1.05
10
4
0.48460920 0.32097551 0.26194343 0.17665175 1.05
10
5
0.48460877 0.32097521 0.26194321 0.17665155 1.05
t = 0 (extr.) 0.48460875 0.32097512 0.26194319 0.17665121 1.05
O
X
Y
Z
Figure 5. Test 4: Transverse displacement eld computed with the proposed method (N = 16)
We observe that the method is perfectly locking-free and that an order of convergence close to one is attained
even for extremely small values of the thickness. Thus, this experiment provides a solid numerical evidence of
the locking-free character of the method.
Figure 5 shows the transverse displacement eld of the stiened plate reported in Table 4 for t = 0.001 m
and N = 16. In this case the relation E
s
/E = 10
4
. The eect of the stiener can be clearly appreciated.
6. Conclusions
We analyzed the load problem of the clamped stiened plate modeled by Reissner-Mindlin equations. We
restricted our analysis to the case of concentrically stiened plates, in which the mid-line of the stiener lies on
the mid-surface of the plate. In such a case, the problem decouples into two well posed problems: a stiened
in-plate plate problem and a stiened bending plate problem.
We propose a nite element method based on a standard linear triangular elements for the in-plane problem
and DL3 elements for the bending problem. The analysis of the former is straightforward, since it turns out a
standard elliptic problem not depending on the plate thickness.
The analysis of the bending problem is more involved. We proved optimal order error estimates for all the
quantities in terms of higher order norms of these quantities. We proved that these higher order norms are
bounded with bounds in principle depending on the plate thickness.
Because of this, the main goal of the numerical experimentation was to assess the locking-free character of
the method. The numerical tests also conrmed the optimal order of convergence and showed the robustness
of the method with respect to the physical parameters of the stiener.
A FINITE ELEMENT FOR STIFFENED PLATES 25
Acknowledgements. RD acknowledges support by ANPCyT under grant PICT 01307 and by Universidad de Buenos
Aires under grant X070 (Argentina). RR acknowledges support by FONDAP and BASAL projects CMM, Universidad
de Chile (Chile). FS was supported by a CONICYT fellowship.
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