Finite Element Analysis of Thin Rectangular Plate Subjected to Uniformly Distributed Transverse Load: A Java Application

Abstract

The present work developed a computer application for the finite element analysis of thin rectangular plates under uniformly distributed transverse load. The software, which was developed using Java programming language, is very user-friendly and flexible in the choice of the boundary conditions and mesh size. The choice of Java programming language was guided by its high memory management, which, in turn had a positive effect on the software runtime. The finite element analysis of a Kirchhoff isotropic plate under a uniformly distributed transverse load was carried out using the software. The results obtained agreed accurately with solutions available in literature. Error analysis conducted on the results confirmed that accuracy generally increases with an increase in the number of elements used in the discretization process. Specifically, for a 16 x 16 discretization, an accuracy ranging from 98.41 to 100 percent, and 95.83 to 100 percent was achieved for the five sets of boundary conditions handled, for deflections at the plate’s center and bending moments respectively.