The problem of the equilibrium of a plate reinforced with stiffeners

The problem of the equilibrium of a non-linear plate reinforced with stiffe ners is considered. The idea of a generalized solution of the problem as a critical point of the energy functional of an elastic system is introduced and the existence of a generalized solution of the problem is proved. The c onvergence of Ritz' method within the framework of this problem and also of the conformal versions of the finite-element method, constructed on the ba sis of Ritz' method, is validated. Similar problems were discussed in [1-3] . (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.