Analysis of Deflection in Isotropic and Orthotropic Rectangular Plates with Central Opening Under Transverse Static Loading

Abstract

In this study, the transverse deflection in orthotropic composite plates as well as in isotropic plates with circular hole subjected to transverse loading is studied. This study was made numerically by using a quadrilateral finite element of four nodes with 8 degrees of freedom at each node, previously developed for the bending and mechanical buckling of laminated composite plates. The main purpose of this study is to demonstrate the accuracy of the present element for analyzing the effect of (D/A) ratio (where (D) is hole diameter and (A) is plate width) upon the transverse deflection in isotropic and orthotropic plates with different support conditions. The numerical results obtained by the present element and the finite element software ‘Abaqus’ compare favorably with those obtained by the analytic approaches and the numerical results published in literature.