Advanced Strength and Applied Elasticity, Fourth Edition

Chapter 13 Plates and Shells

Part A—Bending of Thin Plates

13.1 Basic Assumptions

Plates and shells are initially flat and curved structural elements, respectively, with thicknesses small compared with the remaining dimensions. In Part A of this chapter, we consider plates, for which it is usual to divide the thickness t into equal halves by a plane parallel to the faces. This plane is termed the midsurface of the plate. The plate thickness is measured in a direction normal to the midsurface at each point under consideration. Plates of technical significance are often defined as thin when the ratio of the thickness to the smaller span length is less than 1/20. We here treat the small deflection theory of homogeneous, uniform thin plates, leaving ...