This paper will try to overcome two difficulties encountered by the C0 three-node triangular element based on the displacement-based higher-order models. They are (i) transverse shear stresses computed from constitutive equations vanish at the clamped edges, and (ii) it is difficult to accurately produce the transverse shear stresses even using the integration of the three-dimensional equilibrium equation. Invalidation of the equilibrium equation approach ought to attribute to the higher-order derivations of displacement parameters involved in transverse shear stress components after integrating three-dimensional equilibrium equation. Thus, the higher-order derivatives of displacement parameters will be taken out from transverse shear stress field by using the three-field Hu–Washizu variational principle before the finite element procedure is implemented. Therefore, such method is named as the preprocessing method for transverse shear stresses in present work. Because the higher-order derivatives of displacement parameters have been eliminated, a C0 three-node triangular element based on the higher-order zig-zag theory can be presented by using the linear interpolation function. Performance of the proposed element is numerically evaluated by analyzing multilayered sandwich plates with different loading conditions, lamination sequences, material constants and boundary conditions, and it can be found that the present model works well in the finite element framework.
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