A dual reciprocity boundary element approach for the problems

of large deflection of thin elastic plates

W. Wang, X. Ji, M. Tanaka
Abstract A new numerical method, which is based on the
dual reciprocity boundary element method, is developed
for the large deection of thin elastic plates whose
behaviour is governed by von Karman equations. In the
proposed method, the nonlinear and coupled parts of von
Karman equations are transformed to a set of boundary
integrals, and only are the boundary discretized into
elements. Therefore, a `pure' boundary element approach
for the problems of large deection of thin elastic plates
can be achieved. On the other hand, beneting from the
present method, the plate stresses can be calculated
directly without integral and singularity. Several examples
are given to demonstrate the efciency and accuracy of the
present method.
1
Introduction
Described by von Karman, the moderately large deection
theory for thin elastic plate are two high nonlinear-coupled
equations. It is very difcult to solve these high nonlinear-
coupled equations analytically except for some special
cases. Therefore, numerical methods are usually employed
to deal with the large deection problems. In the recent
years, the boundary element methods, a powerful alter-
native to other numerical methods such as nite difference
methods or nite element methods, are successfully
applied to solve the problems of large deection of thin
elastic plates. The difcult point of using boundary
element methods to solve such kind of problems is to nd
a fundamental solution of von Karman's equations. To
avoid the difculty, some techniques based on the
fundamental solutions of the biharmonic equations had
been developed. Tanaka (1984) used the approach for the
linear problems and treated the nonlinearity in the terms
of incremental variables. Donoghue and Atluri (1987),
Atluri and Pipkins (1991) developed a set of novel
techniques by employing von Karman's equation in the
terms of the transverse deection and the in-plane
displacement components. Katsikadelis and Nerantzaki
(1985, 1994) presented some boundary element
approaches by considering the linear parts and the
nonlinear parts of von Karman's equations, respectively.
In their method (Katsikadelis and Nerantzaki 1994), the
nonlinear parts were turned into as loading forces
distributed on the plates, and then the problems were
considered as two coupled biharmonic equations and
solved iteratively by boundary element methods. In the
same way, some other boundary element techniques for
the problems were developed (Kamiya et al. 1982a, b;
Ye et al. 1985, 1986; Feng et al. 1986; Sawaki et al. 1989).
Although all of the above mentioned boundary element
techniques produced good results, most of them involved
a lot of complex domain integral except for several studies,
such as the method presented by Katsikadelis and Ner-
antzaki (1994). Theoretically, the boundary element
methods can reduce the dimension of a problem by one
and thus leading to a more efcient formulation and
solution. However, the advantage will be compromised by
irreducible avoided domain integrals.
Aimed to overcome the obstacle due to difculty of
nding fundamental solutions and to avoid domain
integrals, many techniques had been developed and among
them the dual reciprocity boundary element method
(DRBEM) was shown as a general successful approach
(Brebbia and Wrobel 1992). DRBEM was rst introduced
by Nardini and Brebbia (1982) to solve dynamic problems
in solid mechanics and now extended to a wide range
application. Based on the principles of DRBEM, this paper
presents an efcient and `pure' boundary element tech-
nique to solve the large deection of thin elastic plates and
also a `singularity free' alternative to calculate the plate
stresses. For the convenience of computation, some terse
symbols proposed by Katsikadelis and Nerantzaki (1994)
are introduced in this paper directly.
2
Mathematical statement of the problem
The behaviour of moderately large deection of thin elastic
plates is governed by the following equations described by
von Karman (Novozhilov 1953):
\
4
w = g=D hL(w; F) ; (1a)
\
4
F =
E
2
L(w; w) in 1 ; (1b)
where w = w(x; y) is the deection function, F = F(x; y) is
an Airy type stress function for the membrane stress, \
2
is
Laplace operator, D = Eh
3
=12(1 m) is the exural rigidity
of the plate having thickness h and elastic constants E; m, 1
Computational Mechanics 26 (2000) 5865 Springer-Verlag 2000
58
Received 11 October 1999
W. Wang (&), X. Ji
Department of Engineering Mechanics,
Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China
M. Tanaka
Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Shinshu University,
4-17-1 Wakasato, Nagano 380-8553, Japan
denotes a 2-D arbitrarily shaped region occupied by the
plate, L is an operator, known as
L(w; F) = w
;xx
F
;yy
w
;yy
F
;xx
2w
;xy
F
;xy
: (2)
The stresses and forces are expressed in the terms of w and
F as Bending moment and twisting moment:
M
x
= D(w
;xx
mw
;yy
); M
y
= D(w
;yy
mw
;xx
) ;
M
xy
= D(1 m)w
;xy
;
Transverse shearing forces:
Q
x
= D(\
2
w)
;x
; Q
y
= D(\
2
w)
;y
;
Membrane forces:
N
x
= hF
;yy
; N
y
= hF
;xx
; N
xy
= hF
;xy
: (3)
Boundary conditions are expressed as
n
1
w n
2
V(w) = n
3
; f
1
w
;n
f
2
M(w) = f
3
; (4a, b)
F = c
1
; F
;n
= c
2
; (4c, d)
where
V w ( ) = D W m 1 ( )
o
os
oX
os

oX
os
_ _ _ _
N
n
X N
t
oX
os
_ _
(5a)
M w ( ) = D U m 1 ( )
o
2
X
os
2
jX
_ _ _ _
(5b)
are the reactive transverse force and the bending moment,
respectively; n
i
(s) (i = 1; 3), f
i
(s) (i = 1; 2) and c
i
(s)
(i = 1; 2) are functions specied on boundary; j(s) is the
curvature of the boundary; N
n
and N
t
are membrane forces
on the boundary.
Four notations X, X, U and W are introduced as
(Katsikadelis and Nerantzaki 1994)
X = w; X = w
;i
n
i
; U = w
;ii
; W = w
;iij
n
j
: (6)
It is obvious that the two equations of von Karman
Equation (1a) and (1b) have something similarly to the
biharmonic equations, and we can start from this point to
establish the dual reciprocity boundary formulations for
the present problem.
3
Integral equations
By using function u
+
=
r
2
8p
ln r (r = P Q [ [, P is the source
point and Q is the eld point), which is the fundamental
solution to the biharmonic equation known as
u
+
;iijj
= d ; (7)
the following two different integral equations are obtained
by Betti's reciprocity theory as
c
i
w
i
P ( ) = _
__
1
u
+
g=D h=DL(w; F) ( )dA

_
o1
u
+
w
;iij
n
j
u
+
j
w
;ii
n
j
_
u
+
jj
w
;i
n
i
u
+
jji
wn
i
_
ds ; (8a)
c
i
F
i
P ( ) = _
__
1
u
+

E
2
L(w; w)
_ _
dA

_
o1
u
+
F
;iij
n
j
u
+
j
F
;ii
n
j
u
+
jj
F
;i
n
i
_
u
+
jji
Fn
i
_
ds ;
(8b)
where, c
i
is a constant and depends upon the location
of the source point P. If P is a boundary point, c
i
= a=2p
(a is the internal angle of the boundary at P). If P is an
interior point, c
i
= 1.
By introducing another four notations (Katsikadelis and
Nerantzaki 1994) as

X = F;

X = F
;i
n
i
;

U = F
;ii
;

W = F
;iij
n
j
; (9)
Equations (8a) and (8b) are rewritten as
c
i
w
i
P ( ) = _
__
1
u
+
g=D h=DL(w; F) ( )dA

1
2p
_
o1
K
1
X K
2
X K
3
U K
4
( )ds ;
(10a)
c
i
F
i
P ( ) =
E
2
_
__
1
u
+
L(w; w)dA

1
2p
_
o1
K
1

X K
2

X K
3

U K
4

W
_ _
ds ;
(10b)
where
K
1
=
cos u
r
; K
2
= ln r 1;
K
3
=
1
4
(2r ln r r) cos u; K
4
=
1
4
r
2
ln r ;
u = r
*
n
*
=r ; (11)
and n
*
is the normal vector on the boundary.
Obviously, the nonlinear parts in Eqs. (1a) and (1b)
becomes as the coupled domain integral items in
Eqs. (10a) and (10b). It is difcult to transform these
nonlinear domain integrals into equivalent boundary
integrals mathematically. Although some approximating
techniques to treat the nonlinear parts are developed, most
of them involve a lot of complex domain integral and
domain discretization. The herein presented brief method
will apply the dual reciprocity method, which is the
most powerful and elegant approach to converting domain
integrals into boundary integrals, to eliminate such
coupled domain integrals.
4
DRBEM formulations
First of all, some approximation should be introduced to
the items in the domain integral parts of Eq. (10a), (10b)
according to the principles of DRBEM.
59
Let's give an investigation to Eq. (10a). The item
g=D h=DL(w; F) can be expanded to as a series of
interpolation functions b
i
x; y ( ), i.e.
g=D h=DL(w; F) =

NL
i=1
a
i
b
i
x; y ( ) ; (12)
where a
j
are coefcients to be determined by the colloca-
tion methods with N boundary collocation points and L
interior collocation points. The interpolation functions
should satisfy equation
\
4
~ w
i
= b
i
: (13)
Therefore, the domain integral part of Eq. (10a) becomes
as
_
__
1
u
+
g=D h=DL(w; F) ( )dA =

NL
k=1
a
k
_
__
1
u
+
\
4
~ w
k
dA :
(14a)
After taking part integral, the right side of above equation
turns into
_
__
1
u
+
\
4
~ w
k
dA
=
_
o1
u
+
~ w
k;iij
n
j
u
+
j
~ w
k;ii
n
j
u
+
jj
~ w
k;i
n
i
u
+
jji
~ w
k
n
i
_ _
ds
c
i
~ w
i
k
: (14b)
Similarly to the expressions (9), the following notations
are proposed as
~
X
k
= ~ w
k
;
~
X
k
= ~ w
k;i
n
i
;
~
U
k
= ~ w
k;ii
;
~
W
k
= ~ w
k;iij
n
j
:
(15)
Then, we have the dual reciprocity integral formulation of
Eq. (1a) as
c
i
w
i
(P) =

NL
k=1
a
k
_
1
2p
_
o1
K
1
~
X
k
K
2
~
X
k
K
3
~
U
k
_
K
4
~
W
k
_
ds c
i
~ w
i
k
_

1
2p
_
o1
K
1
X K
2
X K
3
U K
4
W ( )ds :
(16)
If the source point is an interior point, we have
pX = pw
=

NL
k=1
a
k
_
_
o1
K
1
~
X
k
K
2
~
X
k
K
3
~
U
k
_
K
4
~
W
k
_
ds p
~
X
k
_

_
o1
K
1
X K
2
X K
3
U K
4
W ( )ds : (17)
By differentiating Eq. (17) twice with respect to x and y on
the boundary, we obtain the following expression as
pU = pw
;ii
=

NL
k=1
a
k
_
o1
K
1
~
U
k
K
2
~
W
k
_ _
ds p
~
U
k
_
_
_
_

_
o1
K
1
U K
2
W ( )ds : (18)
As for Eq. (10b), corresponding to Airy type stress
function, the item
E
2
L(w; w) can also be expanded to as a
series of interpolation functions c
i
x; y ( ), i.e.

E
2
L(w; w) =

NL
i=1
b
i
c
i
x; y ( ) ; (19)
where b
j
are coefcients to be determined by the collo-
cation methods with N boundary collocation points and L
interior collocation points. The interpolation functions
c
i
x; y ( ) must satisfy the equations as
\
4
^
F
i
= c
i
: (20)
In the same way as the described above, the following
notations are introduced as
^
X
k
=
^
F
k
;
^
X
k
=
^
F
k;i
n
i
;
^
U
k
=
^
F
k;ii
;
^
W
k
=
^
F
k;iij
n
j
:
(21)
Finally, the dual reciprocity boundary integral formulation
for Eq. (1b) is derived as
c
i
F
i
(P) =

NL
k=1
b
k
1
2p
_
o1
K
1
^
X
k
K
2
^
X
k
K
3
^
U
k
_
_
_
K
4
^
W
k
_
ds c
i
^
F
i
k
_

1
2p
_
o1
K
1

X K
2

X K
3

U K
4

W
_ _
ds :
(22)
Subsequently, we have
p

X = pF
=

NL
k=1
b
k
_
o1
K
1
^
X
k
K
2
^
X
k
K
3
^
U
k
_
_
_
K
4
^
W
k
_
ds p
^
X
k
_

_
o1
K
1

X K
2

X K
3

U K
4

W
_ _
ds ; (23)
p

U = pF
;ii
=

NL
k=1
a
k
_
o1
K
1
^
U
k
K
2
^
W
k
_ _
ds p
^
U
k
_
_
_
_

_
o1
K
1

U K
2

W
_ _
ds (24)
60
By using expressions (6) and (9), the boundary conditions
(4ad) may be expressed as
n
1
X Dn
2
W m 1 ( )
o
os
oX
os

oX
os
_ _ _ _
n
2
N
n
X N
t
oX
os
_ _
= n
3
; (25a)
f
1
X Df
2
U m 1 ( )
o
2
X
os
2
jX
_ _ _ _
= f
3
; (25b)

X = c
1
;

X = c
2
: (25c)
After introducing NE elements and interpolation func-
tions, integrating over each boundary element, the dis-
cretized form of Eqs. (17), (18), and the boundary
conditions (25a) and (25b) are turned into four formula-
tions as

NE
j=1
A
11
( )
ij
X
j
A
12
( )
ij
X
j
A
13
( )
ij
U
j
A
14
( )
ij
W
j
_ _
=

NE
j=1

NL
k=1
a
k
A
11
( )
ij
~
X
jk
A
12
( )
ij
~
X
jk

_
A
13
( )
ij
~
U
jk
A
14
( )
ij
~
W
jk
_
; (26)

NE
j=1
A
11
( )
ij
U
j
A
12
( )
ij
W
j
_ _
=

NE
j=1

NL
k=1
a
k
A
11
( )
ij
~
U
jk
A
12
( )
ij
~
W
jk
_ _
; (27)

i1
j=i1
A
31
( )
ij
X
j

i1
j=i1
A
32
( )
ij
X
j
A
34
( )
ij
W
j
= B
3
( )
i
;
(28)

i1
j=i1
A
41
( )
ij
X
j
A
42
( )
ij
X
j
A
43
( )
ij
U
j
= B
4
( )
i
: (29)
Taking the above four Eqs. (26)(29), to all boundary
nodes by using a collocation technique, the system equa-
tions, corresponding to Eq. (1a), are obtained and re-
written into the matrix form as
AU =
~
A
~
Ua B ; (30)
where
U = ( X X U W)
T
; (31a)
X = ( X
1
X
2
. . . X
N
) ; (31b)
X = ( X
1
X
2
. . . X
N
) ; (31c)
U = ( U
1
U
2
. . . U
N
) ; (31d)
W = ( W
1
W
2
. . . W
N
) ; (31e)
a = ( a
1
a
2
. . . a
NL
)
T
; (31f )
B = ( 0 0 B
3
B
4
)
T
; (31g)
A =
A
11
A
12
A
13
A
14
0 0 A
11
A
12
A
31
A
32
0 A
34
A
41
A
42
A
43
0
_

_
_

_
; (31h)
~
A =
A
11
A
12
A
13
A
14
0 0 A
11
A
12
0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0
_

_
_

_
; (31i)
~
U =
X
1
X
2
. . . X
NL
X
1
X
2
. . . X
NL
U
1
U
2
. . . U
NL
W
1
W
2
. . . W
NL
_

_
_

_
; (32a)
X
i
=
~
X
1i
~
X
2i
. . .
~
X
Ni
_ _
T
; (32b)
X
i
=
~
X
1i
~
X
2i
. . .
~
X
Ni
_ _
T
; (32c)
U
i
=
~
U
1i
~
U
2i
. . .
~
U
Ni
_ _
T
; (32d)
W
i
=
~
W
1i
~
W
2i
. . .
~
W
Ni
_ _
T
; (32e)
and T means transverse.
Equation (30) is the DRBEM system equation of the
deection function of Eq. (1a).
Applying the above stated procedure to Eqs. (23),
(24) and the boundary conditions (25c), we get the
discretized form of DRBEM corresponding to Airy type
function F as

NE
j=1
A
11
( )
ij
c
j
1
A
12
( )
ij
c
j
2
A
13
( )
ij

U
j
A
14
( )
ij

W
j
_ _
=

NE
j=1

NL
k=1
b
k
A
11
( )
ij
^
X
jk
A
12
( )
ij
^
X
jk
_
A
13
( )
ij
^
U
jk
A
14
( )
ij
^
W
jk
_
; (33)

NE
j=1
A
11
( )
ij

U
j
A
12
( )
ij

W
j
_ _
=

NE
j=1

NL
k=1
b
k
A
11
( )
ij
^
U
jk
A
12
( )
ij
^
W
jk
_ _
: (34)
Finally, the system equations, corresponding to Eq. (1b),
are obtained by the analogous way used in deriving
Eq. (30) as

U =
^
A
^
Ub C ; (35)
where

U =

U

W
_ _
T
; (36a)

U =

U
1

U
2
. . .

U
N
_ _
; (36b)

W =

W
1

W
2
. . .

W
N
_ _
; (36c)
b = b
1
b
2
. . . b
NL
( )
T
; (36d)
C = A
11
C
1
A
12
C
2
0 ( )
T
; (36e)
61

A =
A
13
A
14
A
11
A
12
_ _
; (36f )
^
A =
A
11
A
12
A
13
A
14
0 0 A
11
A
12
_ _
; (36g)
^
U =
^
X
1
^
X
2
. . .
^
X
NL
^
X
1
^
X
2
. . .
^
X
NL
^
U
1
^
U
2
. . .
^
U
NL
^
W
1
^
W
2

^
W
NL
_

_
_

_
; (36h)
^
X
i
=
^
X
1i
^
X
2i
. . .
^
X
Ni
_ _
T
; (37a)
^
X
i
=
^
X
1i
^
X
2i
. . .
^
X
Ni
_ _
T
; (37b)
^
U
i
=
^
U
1i
^
U
2i
. . .
^
U
Ni
_ _
T
; (37c)
^
W
i
=
^
W
1i
^
W
2i
. . .
^
W
Ni
_ _
T
; (37d)
and
C
1
= c
1
1
c
2
1
. . . c
NE
1
_ _
T
;
C
1
= c
1
2
c
2
2
. . . c
NE
2
_ _
T
:
The full expressions of matrices A and

A with the constant
element employed were given by Katsikadelis and
Nerantzaki (1985). It is easy to see that the computation of
the above equations can be taken on the boundary only
and no domain integral, or domain discretization, is
involved. Furthermore, if constant element was em-
ployed, there is not any singularity in herein presented
formulations.
5
Aspects of the numerical implementation
5.1
The interpolation coefficients
The interpolation coefcient vectors a and b in Eqs. (30)
and (35) will now be investigated. By taking Eqs. (12) and
(19) to N different boundary nodes and L different interior
points, a set of equations are obtained as
g(p
i
)=D h=D w p
i
( )
;xx
F p
i
( )
;xx
w p
i
( )
;yy
F p
i
( )
;yy
_
2w p
i
( )
;xy
F p
i
( )
;xy
_
=

NL
k=1
a
k
b
k
p
i
; q
k
( ) ; (38)

E
2
w p
i
( )
;xx
_ _
2
w p
i
( )
;yy
_ _
2
2 w p
i
( )
;xy
_ _
2
_ _
=

NL
k=1
b
k
c
k
p
i
; q
k
( ) ; (39)
where i = 1; 2; . . . ; N L. Each of the above equation
contains the second derivative of the function w and F .
In order to determine the interpolation coefcient
vectors a and b, it is necessary to express all these
second derivatives in the terms of w and F. So, we propose
the following approximations:
w p ( ) =

NL
k=1
d
k
x p; q
k
( ); F p ( ) =

NL
k=1
e
k
t p; q
k
( );
(i; j = 1; 2; . . . ; N L) : (40a, b)
By taking the above two equations to N L different
points, a set of equations are obtained and expressed in
matrix form as
w =

Dx; F =

Et : (41a, b)
Differentiating Eqs. (41a) and (41b) twice to x and y,
respectively, we have
w
;xx
=

D
;xx
x; w
;xy
=

D
;xy
x; w
;yy
=

D
;yy
x ; (41ac)
F
;xx
=

E
;xx
t; F
;xy
=

E
;xy
t; F
;yy
=

E
;yy
t : (42ac)
By inverting equation (41a, b), we get
x =

D
1
w; t =

E
1
F : (43a, b)
Substituting Eqs. (43a) and (43b) into Eqs. (41a)(41c)
and (42a)(42c), we obtain
w
;xx
=

D
;xx

D
1
w; w
;xy
=

D
;xy

D
1
w;
w
;yy
=

D
;yy

D
1
w ; (44ac)
F
;xx
=

E
;xx

E
1
F; F
;xy
=

E
;xy

E
1
F;
F
;yy
=

E
;yy

E
1
F : (45ac)
Now we rewrite Eqs. (37) and (38) in matrix form,
respectively, as
q = Va; 0 = Hb : (46a, b)
By inverting above equations, vectors a and b are
expressed in the terms of functions w and F as
a = V
1
q; b = H
1
0 ; (47a, b)
After substituting equations (47a, b) into equations (30)
and (35), we obtain the globe system equations for the
present problems as
AU =
~
A
~
UV
1
q B ; (48a)

U =
^
A
^
UH
1
0 C : (48b)
The above two equations can be solved iteratively. In order
to estimate the convergence of the present solution, an
error is dened as
error = max U
k1
U
k
_
_
_
_
: (49)
It must be pointed out that the coefcient matrices A,

A,
~
A,
^
A,
~
U,
^
U, V
1
and H
1
, and the vectors B and C in
Eqs. (48a) and (48b) depend only on geometrical data.
Therefore, they can be computed only one time and stored
for use in the later iterative procedure.
5.2
The interpolation functions
The interpolation functions, which are used in Eqs. (12),
(19), (40a) and (40b), are adopted in the form of the radial
basis function type as
b
i
x; y ( ) = c
i
x; y ( ) = l
1
l
2
r
i
l
3
r
2
i
l
4
r
3
i
; (50)
62
x
i
x; y ( ) = t
i
x; y ( ) = m
1
m
2
r
2
i
m
3
r
3
i
m
4
r
4
i
; (51)
where
r
i
=

x x
i
( )
2
y y
i
( )
2
_
(i = 1; 2; . . . ; N L) :
l
1
; l
2
; l
3
; l
4
; m
1
; m
2
; m
3
; and m
4
are arbitrary coefcient
constants. Since the second derivative of r
i
leads to
singularity, it is dropped out in Eq. (51). The particular
solution corresponding to the radial basis function, r
k
, is
given as
^ x =
^
F =
r
k4
k 2 ( )
2
k 4 ( )
2
: (52)
where k is a positive integer.
From numerical experiments, it is found that the
coefcient constants selected as follows can produce ideal
results:
l
1
= 1; l
2
= 1; l
3
= 0; l
4
= 0;
m
1
= 1; m
2
= 1; m
3
= 1; m
4
= 5 : (53)
5.3
Calculation of stress without integral and singularity
The calculation of stresses is of fundamental importance
for the solution of plate problems. It is well known, to
calculate stress is cumbersome due to the strongly singular
integrals in the ordinary BEM expressions of plate stress.
In this paper, an efcient alternative based on DRBEM is
presented. Since we have already obtained the approxi-
mations of the second derivatives of w, F by Eqs. (44a)
(44c) and (45a)(45c), we can apply these approximations
to calculate the plate stresses directly.
After the iterative procedure, all quantities of the left
side of Eqs. (44a)(44c) and (45a)(45c), the second
derivatives of w, F, are known. By manipulating the plate
stress expression (3) with the obtained approximations of
the second derivatives of w, F, the plate stresses are
calculated easily without any integrals, and the compli-
cated singularity computing in ordinary BEM is avoided
thoroughly.
5.4
The solution algorithm
Since the system Eqs. (48a), (48b) behave nonlinearly, an
iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the two equations.
Initially, we should treat Eq. (48a) as a linear equation by
prescribing initial values to w
;xx
; w
;yy
; w
;zz
; F
;xx
; F
;yy
; F
;zz
.
The detailed algorithm is given as follows:
1. Set the initial value of the second derivatives of w and F:
w
0
i;xx
= 0; w
0
i;xy
= 0; w
0
i;yy
= 0;
F
0
i;xx
= 0; F
0
i;xy
= 0; F
0
i;yy
= 0 :
2. Compute the coefcient matrices A,

A,
~
A,
^
A,
~
U,
^
U, V
1
and H
1
, and the vectors B and C, then store them.
3. Begin k iteration loop.
(A) Compute vector q using the left side of Eq. (38)
with the quantities of w
k1
i;xx
, w
k1
i;xy
, w
k1
i;yy
, F
k1
i;xx
, F
k1
i;xy
and F
k1
i;yy
.
(B) Solve Eq. (48a) and obtain the deections w
k
i
.
(C) Compute w
k
i;xx
, w
k
i;xy
and w
k
i;yy
using
Eqs. (44a)(44c),
(D) Compute vector 0 using the left side of Eq. (39)
with the quantities of w
k
i;xx
, w
k
i;xy
, w
k
i;yy
.
(E) Solve Eq. (48b) and obtain the Airy stress function
F
k
i
.
(F) Compute F
k
i;xx
, F
k
i;xy
and F
k
i;yy
using Eqs. (45a)(45c).
(G) Check if the convergence is achieved, if false, go to
3(A); If true, exit the loop and go to step 4.
4. Compute the plate stress directly by using Eq. (3) and
the quantities of w
k
i;xx
, w
k
i;xy
, w
k
i;yy
, F
k
i;xx
, F
k
i;xy
and F
k
i;yy
obtained at the end of the loop at step 3.
5. Output the results.
Note: (i = 1; 2; . . . ; N L).
6
Examples
The presented method has been turned into a computer
program and representative examples have been investi-
gated to demonstrate the efciency of the methods, the
accuracy of the results and the range of application of the
presented method (Wang 1997). In following computing,
constant element is used, all data are dimensionless and
error = 10
4
, the coefcient constants used by the
interpolation functions (50), (51) are given in expression
(53).
1. A clamped circular plate with movable edge in its plane
w =
ow
on
= F =
oF
on
= 0
_ _
under uniformly distributed
load (p = 10). The geometrical data and elastic constant
are:
Radius: a = 50, thickness: h = 1, h=a = 0:02, Poisson
ratio: m = 0:3, Young's modular E = 0.6250E+07.
The following the cases are investigated:
1. 40 boundary nodes and 81 interior points (Fig. 1);
2. 40 boundary nodes and 73 interior points;
3. 40 boundary nodes and 5 interior points.
The presented deection, membrane and bending
stresses at center point for the three cases along with
those obtained from a nite difference solution (Chia
1980) are shown in Table 1a and Table 1b.
Figure 2 demonstrates the defection. In order to
draw the deection easily, circular area is expand to a
square area and the deection outside the circular is set
Fig. 1. Computing modal of clamped circular plate under
uniformly distributed load
63
to zero. It is should be pointed out that a precise result
was produced with only 5 internal points employed.
2. Two parallel edges clamped w =
ow
on
= F =
oF
on
= 0
_ _
and
the other two parallel edges simple supported
w = M w ( ) = F =
oF
on
= 0
_ _
, under uniformly distributed
load (p = 10). The geometrical data and elastic constant
are:
Radius: a = 2, thickness: h = 0:1; h=a = 0:05
Poisson ratio: m = 0:3, Young's modular E = 3.0E+07.
The case of 40 boundary nodes and 49 interior points
are investigated (Fig. 3)
The presented deections under four qa
4
=Eh
4
quantities
along with those obtained from other methods are
given in Table 2. A demonstration of the deection
is given in Fig. 4.
Only 7 iterative steps were used when the convergence
was achieved.
3. Two parallel edges clamped w =
ow
on
= F =
oF
on
= 0
_ _
and the other two parallel edges are free
M w ( ) = F =
oF
on
= 0
_ _
, under uniformly distributed load
(p = 10). The geometrical data and elastic constant are:
Radius: a = 2, thickness: h = 0:1;
Poisson ratio: m = 0:3, Young's modular: E = 3.0E+07;
The case of 40 boundary nodes and 49 interior points
are investigated (Fig. 5).
The maximum deection is 0.001591. The demonstra-
tion of the deection is given in Fig. 6
Table 2. The ration of max deection via thickness (w/h)
qa
4
/Eh
4
Classic
(Azizian 1985)
Finite stripe
(Azizian 1985)
Present
0.91757 0.019149 0.019908 0.0196312
4.5788 0.095127 0.098833 0.980101
6.8681 0.14155 0.14694 0.146729
9.1575 0.18671 0.19361 0.195117
Fig. 2. The deection of example (1)
Table 1a. The deection at the center point
Deection
Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 F.D.
C
1.342 1.310 1.395 1.310
Table 1b. The membrane and bending stresses at the center
point
r
b
r
a
2
=Eh
2
r
m
r
a
2
=Eh
2
r
m
t
a
2
=Eh
2
Case 1 F.D.
C
Case 1 F.D.
C
Case 1 F.D.
C
3.2047 3.250 0.7709 0.782 0.7708 0.782
Note: C means Chia (1980), F.D. is an abbreviate of the nite
difference, m means membrane and b means bending
Fig. 3. Computing modal of square plate under uniformly dis-
tributed load with mixed boundary conditions
Fig. 4. The deection of mixed boundary conditions
Fig. 5. Mixed boundary conditions
Fig. 6. The deection of example (3)
64
4. The computing model is the same as that of example 1
except for the load. The load is a hydrostatic pressure
from 20 to 0 along a diameter (Fig. 7). The maximum
deection is 1.136. The demonstration of deection,
which extended to a square area based on the same
reason as described in example (1), is shown in Fig. 8.
7
Discussions and conclusions
In this paper, a boundary element approach was developed
for analysis of the large deection of the thin elastic plates.
The method is based upon the dual reciprocity methods
and all domain integrals are avoided. Beneting from the
presented method, a novel approach to calculate the plate
stressed without integral and singularity was also pre-
sented. Since the interpolation function pairs b
i
x; y ( ) and
c
i
x; y ( ), x
i
x; y ( ) and t
i
x; y ( ) are chosen as the same to each
other, respectively, and most of the coefcients depend
only on the geometry, the computer capacity can be
reduced rapidly. Although the choice of interpolation
functions is very important in DRBEM, there is no exact
theoretical explanation about the choice at present. The
proposed interpolation functions (50) and (51), the type of
the radial basis function, combined with the set of
coefcient constants (53), produced ideal results in the
present study. From the computational point of view, the
proposed method is efcient and well suited for analysis
for any kind of boundary conditions and arbitrary shape
of the plates at engineering accuracy.
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Fig. 7. Clamped circular plate under hydrostatic pressure
Fig. 8. The deection of example (4)
65