ANALYSIS OF THICK RECTANGULAR PLATES RESTING ON NONLINEAR WINKLER FOUNDATION

Abstract

This research deals with the elastic behavior of thick plates resting on nonlinear Winkler foundation. Mindlin’s thick plate theory is extended to include the effect of nonlinear elastic foundation. Finite differnce program was developed to solve the differential equations for bending of thick rectangular plate on nonlinear foundation. The finite element (ANSYS program v12.1) method was used to analyze thick plates ANSYS program is used through the element SHELL 281 to represent the plate. The element has eight nodes with six degrees of freedom at each node. COMPIN39 element with two nodes was used to represent nonlinear soil behavior. The element has three translation degree of freedom at each node to represent the linear soil behavior COMBIN14 element was used, the element has two nodes with three translation degree of freedom at each node to represent linear soil behavior. The results obtained from finite difference technique are compared with the finite element results to check the accuracy of the solution. Good agreements between them are obtained.