Author(s)

S. Fadhil, P. Haynes & A. El-Zafrany

Abstract

This paper introduces a coupled finite element - boundary element technique for the analysis of composite layered plates of arbitrary shapes on an elastic foundation. A Mindlin-type finite element is employed for the modelling of the plate, whilst the foundation surface is modelled by a boundary integral equation. Several case studies were analysed and their results proved that the coupled technique has led to an accurate analysis of such problems, provided that no reduced integration be used for the evaluation of stiffness matrices. 1 Introduction The problem of plates on elastic foundation is a classical problem, which attracted many researchers from as early as 1867, when Winkler developed his well-known foundation model*. Several other foundation models have appeared since then, includin

Keywords