A boundary element method applied to the elastostatic bending problem of beam-stiffened plates

The present paper proposes a basic formulation for the static bending probl em of beam-stiffened elastic plates. This problem has been so far analyzed using the Timoshenko theory in which the equivalent shear force and bending moments are assumed to act on the beam stiffener. Since fourth-order deriv atives of unknown displacements are included in the formulation, in its num erical implementation fourth-order polynomials must be used as the interpol ation functions. In this paper, the interactive forces and moments between the plate and the stiffener are treated as line distributed unknown loads. In the numerical implementation of the formulation, these forces can be approximated using a suitable family of interpolation functions. The formulation is presented i n detail and a computer code is developed. The numerical results obtained b y the computer code are discussed, whereby the usefulness of the proposed s olution procedure is demonstrated. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.