Analysis of Orthotropic Thin Rectangular Simply Supported Plate Subjected to both In-Plane Compression and Lateral Loads

Abstract

This study presents the analysis of thin rectangular orthotropic plate, simply supported at all edges (SSSS) subjected to both in-plane compression and lateral loads. The total potential energy functional was used in the analysis. The general variation of the total potential energy functional was done and the governing equation was obtained. The solution of the direct integration of the governing equation gave the deflection of the plate as a product of the coefficient of deflection and an orthogonal polynomial shape function. The expression for the coefficient of deflection was obtained by the direct variation of the total potential energy functional. This was used to derive the equation for the Lateral load parameter of an orthotropic thin rectangular plate carrying both in-plane compression and lateral loads based on the maximum deflection condition and also based on the elastic stability (yield strength) condition. The peculiar deflection equation for the SSSS plate was obtained using the formulated polynomial shape function. Numerical examples were carried out to determine the lateral load parameters corresponding to various plate thickness and permissible deflection for orthotropic thin SSSS plate carrying both in-plane compression and lateral load. In the same way, the lateral load parameters using the elastic stability condition (yield strength) were obtained for yield strength of 275 MPa, 355 MPa and 410 MPa