Analysis of Plated

Structures
Flat Plate -

very small thickness in comparison

to the
planar dimensions
Lateral Loading - forces are perpendicular to the
plane of the plate

Resists the applied load by bending in two

directions and twisting moment - Bending
Behaviour Dominates

Stress Resultants in a Plate

Stresses

Plate Theory
Plate theory is to calculate the deformation and
stresses in a plate subjected to loads.
Due to very small thickness in comparison to the
planar dimensions, reduces the full three-dimensional
solid

mechanics

problem

to

two-dimensional

problem.
Thin Plate Theory:
thickness to width ratio < 0.1
maximum deflection < one tenth of thickness,

Assumptions
1. The line normal to the neutral axis before bending
remains straight after bending.
2. The normal stress in thickness direction is
neglected.z = 0
3. The transverse shearing strains gxz and gyz are
assumed to be zero.

Limitations.
1. Kirchhoff
plate
element
cannot
rotate
independently of the position of the mid-surface.
Problems occur at boundaries, where the
undefined
transverse
shear
stresses
are
necessary especially for thick plates
2. is only applicable for analysis of plates with
smaller deformations, as higher order terms of
strain-displacement
relationship
cannot
be
neglected for large deformations.
3. Only for small deformations the transverse
stiffness can be assumed to be constant

Thick Plate Theory

Reissner Mindlin or Mindlin plate theory is applied
for analysis of thick plates, where the shear
deformations are considered, rotation and lateral
deflections are decoupled.
Cross-sections need not be perpendicular to the axial
forces after deformation.
Assumptions:
1. The deflections of the plate are small.
2. Normal to the plate mid-surface , before
deformation remains straight but not necessarily
normal to it after deformation.

PLATE Elements
Applications
Floor Panels

Shear Walls

Triangular elements
Four or Eight Noded Quadrilateral Elements
DOF = 3 (Displacement and Two Rotations) ,, at
each node

mulation of Rectangular Plate Bending Element THICK

Isoparametric formulation

mulation of Rectangular Plate Bending Element THICK

A. Moment Curvature Relation

Compact
Form

Analogous to Stress Strain

Relation

[B] is the strain displacement matrix

{di} is the nodal displacement vector

[C]p
=

B. Strain Displacement Relation

Matrix
Form

Four Node Quadrilateral case

Compact Form

Explicit form

In general for any[Ci ]p [Bi] =

The bending and shear terms are separated and

written as

Compact Form

C. Element Stiffness Matrix

Gauss Quadrature integration rule is used to

compute the stiffness matrix [k].