A 2D hybrid stress element for improved prediction of the out-of-plane fields using Fourier expansion

Recently we formulated a 2D hybrid stress element from the 3D Hellinger-Reissner principle for the analysis of thick bodies that are symmetric to the thickness direction. Polynomials have typically been used for all the displacement and stress fields. Although the element predicted the dominant stress and all displacement fields accurately, its prediction of the out-of-plane shear stresses was affected by the very high order terms used in the polynomials. This paper describes an improved formulation of the 2D element using Fourier series expansion for the out-of-plane displacement and stress fields. Numerical results illustrate that its predictions have markedly improved.