THE EXACT THEORY OF PLATE-BENDING

A new approach is introduced for the analysis and computation of homog eneous, isotropic elastic plates subjected to any bending loads. This approach is based upon a partitioning, which is independent of thickne ss, of the 3D reference solution into both a part with large variation length and localized effects, whose generalized stress-displacement v alues are zero. The parr with large variation length can easily be com puted from data as well as from generalized quantities that represent 'averages' in the thickness. These generalized quantities coincide wit h those obtained from the 3D reference solution; they constitute the s olution to an 'exact' theory of plate bending. (C) Academie des Scienc es/Elsevier Paris.