Simply Supported Polygonal Mindlin Plate Deflections Using Kirchhoff Plates

Abstract

This study presents a derivation of an exact relationship between the deflection values of a simply supported Mindlin plate and the corresponding simply supported Kirchhoff plate. The relationship is valid for any polygonal plate shape and transverse loading condition. Based on this relationship, the deflection due to the shear deformation effect in plates can be easily calculated from Kirchhoff plate solutions without the necessity of a more complicated shear-deformable-plate analysis. This exact relationship ought to be useful as a basis for the development of practically meaningful results for plates with other boundary and loading conditions, and may serve to check numerical values computed from thick-plate analysis software.