Dynamic-relaxation solutions of elastic-plate problems

Abstract

The analysis of the static deformation of elastic plates is achieved by studying the dynamic problem of the damped oscillation of the plate and arranging that the oscillations are rapidly reduced to zero by a suitable choice of the damping factor. This damped-wave equation, when written in an explicit finite-difference form, can readily be solved on a digital computer. The computer programme has been designed to determine automatically the critical damping factor for a rectangular plate carrying any load distribution and with any combination of edge conditions. The extension of the method to include elastic foundations is also described.