Rectangular thick plates on winkler foundation: differential quadrature element solution

This paper deals with the static analysis of homogenous isotropic rectangular plates on Winkler foundation on the basis of first-order shear deformation theory. An improved differential quadrature (DQ) method, called the differential quadrature element method (DQEM), has been developed for this analysis. The plates considered are subjected to a parch load or a concentrated line load, which are not solvable by the global DQ method. The convergence and comparison studies are carried out to establish the reliabilty of the DQEM results. Then the numerical results for different boundary conditions (i,e. SSSS, CCCC, S'S'S'S' and SFSF) are presented showing the parametric effects of dimensions of loading area/line, relative thickness ratio and elastic foundation modulus on the deflection, bending and twisting moments, and shear forces at selected locations. Most of these data are new and due to the high accuracy of the DQ solution they can be useful for benchmarking future work. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.