Rectangular Plates

67

wx; y

1 X m1;2;...

! my my my 2p0 a4 1m1 mx Cm sinh 5 ; Bm cosh sin a a a a  D m5 d

where the constants of integration Bm and Cm are evaluated from the boundary conditions on edges y b=2: namely,   @2 w  0 : e w 0jyb=2 and   @ y2
yb=2

Application of the above to w, Eq. (d), leads to two equations. Solving them for Bm and Cm yields Bm 2 m tanh m 1m1 ; 5 m5 cosh m Cm 1m1 ; 5 m5 cosh m f

where m mb=2a. The deection of the plate along the x axis is " # 1 p0 a4 X 21m1 mx Am sin : wy0 D m1 a 5 m5 For a square plate we have a b, from which one obtains the following:   p0 a4 x 2 x 3x wy0 0:002055 sin 0:000177 sin 0:000025 sin ... : D a a a g The center deection is given as wxa=2;y0 0:00203 p0 a 4 : D h

As expected, this result is about one-half of the deection of a uniformly laded plate (see Example 3.1). Equating the rst derivative of the expression (g) to zero, we can nd that the maximum deection occurs at a point x 0:557a and that wmax 0:00206p0 a4 =D. The bending moments can be found by substitution of Eq. (d) for deection into Eq. (2.13). For example, the bending moment equation Mx along the x axis, i.e., for y 0, has the form Mx y0 p0 a2
1 X 21m1 m1

3 m3
1 X m1

sin

mx a mx ; a

p0 a2 2

m2 1 Bm 2Cm sin

where the constants Bm and Cm are given by the expressions (f). These series converge rapidly and several rst terms give a sufciently accurate result for Mx :