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Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate

Here we consider a circular plate of radius a: it carries a load of intensity q uniformly distributed over its entire surface and the edges are clamped.

Young’s modulusE1,00E08kPa
Thicknessh1,00m
Poisson’s ratio\(\nu\)0,30
Radiousa10,00m
Uniform pressureq-10,00kPa
Flexural rigidity of the plateD9157509,16kN/m

The flexural rigidity of the plate is \(D = {E \cdot h^3}/{12(1-\nu^2)}\).

If you want, you can read how we built the model in WeStatiX in our documentation. In here you find also dimensions and material constants. Otherwise, you can find it amongst our tutorials.

Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO

The analytical solution of this problem is given in Theory of plates and shells, [1].

If \(D= \frac{E h^3}{12 (1-\nu^2)}\) is the stiffness of the plate, we expect the deflection to be \(w(x)= \frac{q}{64D} (a^2-r^2)^2\)

While the bending moments are:

\(M_r= \frac{q}{16} [a^2(1+\nu)-r^2 (3+\nu); \) is the bending moment acting along circumferential sections of the plate.

\(M_t= \frac{q}{16} [a^2(1+\nu)-r^2 (1+3\nu)\) is the bending moment acting along the diametral sections of the plate.

Start the analysis in the CALCULATE Tab, so you can read the results contours as in the pictures below.

Remember that they refers to the global axes.

Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO
Shell Z displacements
Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO
Shell bending moment Mxx
Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO
Shel bending moment Myy

In order to compare the numerical solution with the analytical one, you can export the results and plot them. Therefore you can see the comparison between the two solutions.

First, the displacements.

Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO deflection

Secondly, the bending moment \(M_r\).

Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO bending moment

In the end, the bending moment \(M_t\)

Uniformly Loaded Circular Plate TIMOSHENKO bending moment

[1] TIMOSHENKO S., WOINOWSKY Y-RIEGER S., Theory of plates and shells, 2ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 1959