ANALYSIS OF SANDWICH PLATES BY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD AND ITS APPLICATIONS.

Sandwich plates are often used with several surrounding reinforcements or connections, forming a complicated construction. At present, for these analyses, F. E. M. (Finite Element Method) is found valid and recommendable comparing with the usual analytical method. However, the representation with sufficient precision has not yet been obtained for this problem. A practical method for the problem was proposed, and it was confirmed that the method had sufficient accuracy and favorable characteristics of convergence shown by numerical examples. Next, several experiments on rectangular plates with various aspect ratios were made and the results compared with the values calculated by our method. Experimental results show satisfactory agreement with the calculated ones even in the case of concentrated load. As a result, this method is considered one suitable for practical use with sufficient accuracy and convergency.