BEM/FEM comparison studies for the inelastic dynamic analysis of thick plates on elastic foundation

Boundary and Finite Element methodologies for the determination of the inelastic response of thick plates resting on Winkler-type elastic foundations are compared and critically discussed. For comparison reasons the domain/boundary element and the finite element methodology use isoparametric elements of the same accuracy level. After a discretizaton of the integral equations of motion in both methodologies an efficient step-by-step time integration algorithm is used to solve the resulting matrix equations. Comparison studies are shown for impacted elastoplastic thick plates with smooth boundaries and supported on different Winkler-type foundations. The numerical results reveal that boundary element method appears to be a better choice in modelling the plate-foundation interaction.