A BOUNDARY INTEGRAL-EQUATION FORMULATION FOR THICK PLATES ON A WINKLER FOUNDATION

A boundary integral equation formulation for thick plates on a Winkler foundation is presented. With the aid of the Hormander operator metho d, a set of differential equations to find the fundamental solutions o f thick plates on a Winkler foundation is converted into a sixth-order partial differential equation with one scalar function as an unknown. In order to reduce the equation further, two auxiliary functions are introduced which satisfy a second and a fourth-order equations. The fu ndmental solutions of thick plates on a Winkler foundation are express ed by a linear combination of the auxiliary functions and their deriva tives. The boundary integral equations are formulated using the weight ed residual procedure. The fundamental solutions obtained are taken as the kernel functions. A few examples are studied. The numerical resul ts show that the present formulation has a high accuracy and efficienc y.