A new orthogonality relationship for orthotropic thin plate theory and its variational principle

Abstract

The thought how dual vectors are constructed in a new orthogonality relationship for theory of elasticity is generalized into orthotropic thin plate bending problems by using the analogy theory between plane elasticity problems and plate bending problems. Dual differential equations are directly obtained by using a mixed variables method. A dual differential matrix to be derived possesses a peculiarity of which principal diagonal sub-matrixes are zero matrixes. Two independently and symmetrically orthogonality sub-relatioships are discovered. By using the integral form for elastic bending theory of orthotropic thin plate the orthogonality relationship is demonstrated. By selecting felicitous dual vectors a new orthogonality relationship for theory of elasticity can be generalized into elastic bending theory of orthotropic thin plate. By using the integral form a variational principle which is relative to differential form and a whole function expression are proposed.