EMA 405

Quadrilateral Elements
Introduction
 Quadrilateral elements are 4-sided, planar
elements
 They can address plane stress, plane strain,
or axisymmetric analyses
◦ Plane stress - z=0 (for thin structures)
◦ Plane strain - z=0 (for thick structures)
◦ Axisymmetric will be addressed in the next
chapter
 2-D triangular elements are related and can
be thought of as quad elements where two
nodes are coincident
 Element Types in ANSYS
 Constant Strain Triangle
 Option for Plane42 in ANSYS

3
u ( x, y )  c1  c2 x  c3 y
v( x, y )  c4  c5 x  c6 y
 x  c2
 y  c6
 xy  c3  c5
2

1
What if triangles have midside nodes
(linear strain triangle)?
u ( x, y )  c1  c2 x  c3 y  c4 x 2  c5 xy  c6 y 2
3 v( x, y )  c7  c8 x  c9 y  c10 x 2  c11 xy  c12 y 2
 x  c2  2c4 x  c5 y
4
 y  c9  c11x  2c12 y
5
 xy  c3  c5 x  2c6 y  c8  2c10 x  c11 y

Plane2 element
2 in ANSYS
6
1
Bilinear quadrilateral element?
4 u ( x, y )  c1  c2 x  c3 y  c4 xy
v( x, y )  c5  c6 x  c7 y  c8 xy
3
 x  c2  c4 y
 y  c7  c8 x
1
 xy  c3  c4 x  c6  c8 y
2
Option in Plane42
element in ANSYS
 Bilinear Quadrilateral (cont.)

 This element does not permit curvature in bending

this

not
this
Quadratic quadrilateral element?
u ( x, y )  c1  c2 x  c3 y  c4 x 2  c5 xy  c6 y 2  c7 x 2 y  c8 xy2
v( x, y )  c9  c10 x  c11 y  c12 x 2  c13 xy  c14 y 2  c15 x 2 y  c16 xy2
 x  c2 x  2c4 x  c5 y  2c7 xy  c8 y 2
4
8

3
5
Plane82
7
element in
ANSYS
6
1 2
Improved bilinear quadrilateral
element
 This is the default behavior of Plane42 in
ANSYS
 It adds curvature terms to the assumed
displacements to permit curvature in
bending
 Von Mises Stress

 Also known as equivalent stress

 A common model for the onset of yielding in
multiaxial stress states

e 
1
 x   y 
2
  x   z 
2
  y   z 2
 6 2
xy   2
xz   2
yz 
2