Explicit formulation for a high precision triangular laminated anisotropic thin plate finite element

An efficient formulation of the stiffness matrix is presented for a high precision triangular laminated anisotropic thin plate finite element. The formulation is based on the classical lamination theory which is reviewed briefly. The stiffness matrix is obtained simply by pre and post multiplication of a few basic matrices, which are presented explicitly. It is believed that this formulation is almost an order of magnitude faster than those available for similar order elements. In addition, the present element formulation is readily applicable as a thin flat shell element. A complete listing of FORTRAN subroutines is presented for the users, to ease implementation of the algorithm.