In modern buildings, especially in commercial buildings, large glass p
anels are used as windows. Design of these glass panels is becoming im
portant. Behavior of the thin glass panels is geometrically nonlinear.
Thus, analysis needs iterative solution and the solution of nonlinear
plate problems with elastic supports necessitates a complete displace
ment formulation. The authors think that it could be useful to share t
heir experience gained from research on the solution of von Karman equ
ations using lateral displacement and Airy stress function and complet
e displacement equations using lateral and in-plane displacements of t
he glass plates since, in the numerical Solution, their convergence lo
oks interesting. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.