For a plate subject to stress boundary condition, the deformation
determined by the Reissner–Mindlin plate bending model could be
bending dominated, transverse shear dominated, or neither
(intermediate), depending on the load. We show that the
Reissner–Mindlin model has a wider range of applicability than
the Kirchhoff–Love model, but it does not always converge to the
elasticity theory. In the case of bending domination, both the two
models are accurate. In the case of transverse shear domination,
the Reissner–Mindlin model is accurate but the Kirchhoff–Love
model totally fails. In the intermediate case, while the
Kirchhoff–Love model fails, the Reissner–Mindlin solution also
has a relative error comparing to the elasticity solution, which
does not decrease when the plate thickness tends to zero. We also
show that under the conventional definition of the resultant
loading functional, the well known shear correction factor 5/6
in the Reissner–Mindlin model should be replaced by 1.
Otherwise, the range of applicability of the Reissner–Mindlin
model is not wider than that of Kirchhoff–Love's.