Corner supported isosceles triangular orthotropic plates

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the bending behaviour of an isosceles triangular orthotropic plate supported at comers and subjected to uniformly distributed load. An approximate method using a polynomial deflection function together with the principle of minimizing the total potential energy is proposed. The analytical results predicted by the proposed solution are compared with those obtained by an established finite element package. In general, polynomial solutions and finite element values of deflections and moment stress resultants are in satisfactory agreement and the accuracy of the proposed method is thus established. © 1989.