A Variational Boundary Element Formulation for Shear Deformable Plate Bending Problems

Abstract

This paper presents the derivation of a new boundary element formulation for plate bending problems. The Reissner's plate bending theory is employed. Unlike the conventional direct or indirect formulations, the proposed integral equation is based on minimizing the relevant energy functional. In doing so, variational methods are used. A collocation based series, similar to the one used in the indirect discrete boundary element method (BEM), is used to remove domain integrals. Hence, a fully boundary integral equation is formulated. The main advantage of the proposed formulation is production of a symmetric stiffness matrix similar to that obtained in the finite element method. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and the validity of the proposed formulation.