A simplified analysis of elastic plates with edge beams

This paper presents a simplified analytical method for rectangular plates w ith edge beams, such as building slabs, under the validity of the Kirchhoff -Love hypotheses. The accuracy of the Galerkin method depends on the shape functions used. However, it is difficult to find out the suitable shape fun ctions satisfying the boundary conditions of plates with edge beams. So, th e plate supported with edge beams is replaced with the plate supported with edges elastically restrained against translation and rotation. From relati onships between these different boundary conditions, the shape functions in the current plate use the shape functions of beams supported with equivale nt translational stiffness and torsional stiffness. Approximate but accurat e solutions for static and dynamic problems of a rectangular plate with edg e beams are proposed by the use of the Galerkin method. The numerical resul ts obtained from the proposed theory for an isotropic plate with edge beams show good agreement with results obtained from the finite element method ( FEM) using FEM code MSC/NASTRAN. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.