On the spatial behaviour of the transient and steady-state solutions in thin plates with transverse shear deformation

This paper studies the spatial behaviour of the transient and steady-state solutions in the problem of bending of a plane elastic plate. When the transient solutions are discussed a bounded or unbounded plane plate of an arbitrary regular form is considered. Then an appropriate time-weighted line-integral measure is introduced and, for each fixed t is an element of [0, T], it is shown that it vanishes at distances from the support of the given data on the time interval [0, T] greater than ct, where c is a characteristic material constant. Moreover, for distances to the support lower than ct. it is established a spatial decay estimate of Saint-Venant-type. For the harmonic vibrations the case of an elastic plate whose middle surface is like a (semi-infinite) strip is considered for which the lateral sides are clamped, Then a cross-sectional line-integral measure is associated with the amplitude of the vibration and the spatial estimate is established for describing the spatial behaviour of the amplitude, provided that the frequency of the harmonic vibration is lower than a critical frequency. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.