The analysis of plate bending problems using the regular direct boundary element method

This paper discusses the development of the regular direct boundary element method for the analysis of plate bending problems. A number of case studies with square, rectangular, rhombic and parallelogram shaped plan forms, with different combinations of fixed, simply supported and free boundary conditions, are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the regular method for plate bending analysis. The plates were analysed using quadratic elements and results for the distribution of displacement, slope, bending moment and shear force are presented for the various case studies. These results from the regular method with the source boundary removed from the actual boundary of the problem being analysed have been compared with either analytical results or with results from alternative numerical techniques. It was found that, in comparison to the singular version of the direct boundary element method, when the sources are distributed on the actual boundary of the problem being analysed, the regular method performs better with a particular improvement occurring at corners where two dissimilar boundary conditions meets.