International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2013)
20

Pure Bending Analysis of Thin Rectangular Flat Plates Using
Ordinary Finite Difference Method
Ezeh, J. C.
1
, Ibearugbulem, O. M.
2
, Onyechere, C. I.
3

1,2,3
Department of Civil Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria.
Abstract Analytical methods search for the universal
mathematical expressions representing the general and exact
solutions of a problem. Unfortunately, exact solutions are only
possible for a few particular cases which frequently represent
simplification of reality. Numerical methods on the other
hand aim to provide approximate solutions in the form of a
set of numbers, to the mathematical equations governing a
problem. In this study, a numerical analysis using Ordinary
Finite Difference Method (OFDM) on pure bending of thin
rectangular flat plates was implemented. The Analysis was
accomplished through a theoretical transformation of the
partial differential equations for the plate into finite
difference form to fit the chosen grid pattern. The finite
difference forms were evaluated at the grid points in order to
obtain a set of simultaneous linear equations. After using the
boundary conditions, SSSS and CCCC respectively, the
unknown functional values in form of deflections were
determined. Visual Basic (VB) software was developed to
simplify the determination of the deflections. The resulting
maximum deflections Wmax, were compared with exact
solutions from previous studies within the range of aspect
ratios of 1.0 to 2.0 as shown on tables 1 and 2. The tables show
that solutions from the present study approximates closely
and rapidly to the exact solutions. Hence, Ordinary finite
difference method (OFDM) provides a very simple and
approximate solution for thin rectangular flat plates.
Keywords- Approximate Solutions; Boundary Conditions;
Maximum Deflection; Pure Bending; Thin plates; Visual
Basic.
I. INTRODUCTION
The pure bending analysis of thin rectangular flat plates
is of interest in the field of mechanics, civil and aerospace
engineering. Except for plates of simple boundary
conditions, the governing plate equation 4w = Po/D
yields plate deflections only with considerable difficulty
(Ugural, 1999).In the past years, plate problems have been
treated by the use of Fourier series or trigonometric series
as the shape function of the deformed plate. However, no
matter the approach used, the use of trigonometric series
(double Fourier series and single Fourier series) has been
predominant. Most times, when it is becoming intractable
to use the trigonometric series, trial and error means of
getting a shape function that would approximate the
deformed shape of the plate would be used(Ibearugbulem
et al., 2011).
As a result of the slow convergence of the double
trigonometric series, researchers proposed an efficient
method of making the convergence of the double Fourier
series faster (Jiu et al, 2007; Ibearugbulem et al, 2011).
Timoshenko and Woinowsky-Krieger (1987), using single
trigonometric functions, got exact solutions for pure
bending analysis of SSSS, CSCS and CCCC thin
rectangular flat plates. Ventsel and Krauthammer (2001),
used ordinary finite difference method to obtain exact
solutions for a thin rectangular flat plate simply supported
at all the four edges.
In this paper, ordinary finite difference method (OFDM)
was used to obtain solutions for the pure bending analysis
of thin rectangular flat plates carrying uniformly distributed
load with the following boundary conditions (Figures 1 -
2): (i) SSSS and (ii) CCCC. An interactive finite difference
method based software program was written in Visual
Basic and provided to make the solution easy.




II. THIN PLATE THEORY
The governing differential equation for deflection of thin
plates was given by Ugural (1999) as;

( )

()

(1)
Where; W is the deflection.
x, y are the coordinates of the plate.
Po is the applied uniformly distributed static load.

is the biharmonic differential operator (i.e.,

( )

()
b
Y
S
S
X
S
S
a
Figure 1: SSSS plate
b
Y
C
C
X
C
C
a
Figure 2: CCCC plate

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2013)
21


h

)
is the flexural rigidity of the plate.
E, and h are the Youngs modulus, Poissons ratio, and
the thickness of the plate (Ventsel and Krauthammer, 2001,
Jiu et al, 2007, Awele et al., 2003).
III. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
For a thin rectangular flat plate with edge lengths a and
b, there are eight boundary conditions for every case.
Two cases are discussed below: (i) fully simply supported,
SSSS. (ii) fully clamped, CCCC. The boundary conditions
for these plates are:
SSSS plate: W(0,y) =0; W(a,y) = 0; W(x,0) = 0; W(x,
b) = 0;

( ) ;

( ) ;

( ) ;

( ) (3)

CCCC Plate: W(0,y) =0; W(a,y) = 0; W(x,0) = 0; W(x,b) =
0;

( ) ;

( ) ;

( ) ;

( ) (4)

IV. ORDINARY FINITE DIFFERENCE COEFFICIENTS AND
PATTERNS







Where P = M / N is the aspect ratio. M and N are the
spans of each rectangular panel.
Point i(0,0) is taken as the origin, using the Central
Difference, the Ordinary Finite-difference coefficients for
the differentials are given below;

[
()

()
]

] (5)

[
()

()
]

] (6)

[
()

()

()
]

] (7)

[
()

()

()
]

] (8)

[
()

()

()

()

()
]

] ()

[
()

()

()

()

()

] ()

]
[

] ()
The Patterns are given as:









Figure 4: Pattern for

.
-1 0 1
Figure 6: Pattern for

.
1 -2
1
Figure 5: Pattern for

.
-1
0
1
Figure 8: Pattern for

.
1
-2
1
Figure 3: Diagram showing a discretized Rectangular Plate

M M M M
N
N
N
N
15 16 17
18
19
5 6 7 8 9
1 2 i 3 4
10 11 12 13 14
20 21
22 23
24
x
y

International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2013)
22








The derived coefficients and pattern for The derived
coefficients and pattern for the governing equation are
applied at each of the internal nodes with the appropriate
boundary conditions to generate the required matrix
equation from which the deflections and moments were
determined. An Ordinary Finite-difference based Visual
Basic program was written and used to ease the solution.
The program generates the required matrix equation as well
as the deflections for both SSSS and CCCC plates when
one enters the grid size, n and the Poissons ratio . The
grid size here means the number of the internal nodes along
each row of the discretized plate.
V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The uniformly distributed load is represented by P while
the maximum deflection is represented by Wmax. Wmax=
KPa4/D. Where K is a numerical value.













Table 1
Values of K at different aspect ratios for SSSS plate;
Aspect
ratio,a/b
K from PRESENT
STUDY K from
Timoshenk
o(1987)
% DIFFERENCE
n =7 n =9 n = 7 n = 9
1 0.00406 0.00406 0.00406 0.00000 0.00000
1.1 0.00486 0.00486 0.00485 0.20619 0.20619
1.2 0.00564 0.00564 0.00564 0.00000 0.00000
1.3 0.00638 0.00639 0.00638 0.00000 0.15674
1.4 0.00707 0.00708 0.00705 0.28369 0.42553
1.5 0.0077 0.00772 0.00772 -0.25907 0.00000
1.6 0.00829 0.0083 0.0083 -0.12048 0.00000
1.7 0.00882 0.00883 0.00883 -0.11325 0.00000
1.8 0.0093 0.00931 0.00931 -0.10741 0.00000
1.9 0.00973 0.00973 0.00974 -0.10267 -0.10267
2 0.01011 0.01012 0.01013 -0.19743 -0.09872
Average % Difference -0.03731 0.05337
The average percentage difference between the solution
from Timoshenko and Krieger (1987), (in this case, exact
method) and the present study according to Table1 is -
0.03731 for grid size n = 7 and 0.05337 for grid size n = 9.
This means that the solution from the present study is a
very close approximation of the exact solution. The
closeness of this method to the exact solution increases as
the grid size n increases.

























Figure 7: Pattern for

.
1
-4-4/P
2

6+6/P
4

+8/P
2





-4-4/P
2

1
-4/P
4

-4/P
2

-4/P
4

-4/P
2

1/P
4

1/P
4

2/P
2

2/P
2

2/P
2

2/P
2


International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, March 2013)
23

Table 2
Values of K at different aspect ratios for CCCC Plate. =0.3
a/b
Present Study.
Timoshe
nko
n = 9 n = 11 n = 13
1 0.00137 0.00134 0.00132 0.00126
1.1 0.00163 0.0016 0.00157 0.0015
1.2 0.00187 0.00182 0.0018 0.00172
1.3 0.00207 0.00202 0.00199 0.00191
1.4 0.00223 0.00218 0.00215 0.00207
1.5 0.00237 0.00232 0.00229 0.0022
1.6 0.00248 0.00243 0.00239 0.0023
1.7 0.00256 0.00251 0.00248 0.00238
1.8 0.00263 0.00258 0.00254 0.00245
1.9 0.00268 0.00263 0.00259 0.00249
2 0.00272 0.00267 0.00263 0.00254
The average percentage difference between the solution
from Timoshenko and Krieger and the present study
according to table 2 is 7.94588 for grid size n = 9; 5.68351
for n= 11 and 4.14286 for n =13. This means that the
solution from this present study was a very close
approximation of the exact solution.
















Also, as the grid size n increases, the solution from the
present study gets closer to the exact solution. However,
the results show that the solutions from this method are
upper bound.
REFERENCES
[1] Awele, M., Ayodele, J.C., and Osaisai, F.E. (2003): Numerical
Methods for Scientists and Engineers.Ibadan, Nigeria: Beaver
publications
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(2011): Buckling Analysis of Axially Compressed SSSS Thin
Rectangular Plates using Taylor-Mclaurin Shape Function.
International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Vol. 2, No.
2 Pp.667 671; ISSN 0976 4399.
[3] Jiu, H. W.; Liu, A. Q. and Chen, H. L. (2007): Exact Solutions for
Free- Vibration Analysis of Rectangular Plates using Bessel
Functions; Journal of Applied Mechanics ASME, Vol. 74.
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Plates and Shells, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill Books Company, USA.
[5] Ugural, A. C. (1999): Stresses in Plates and Shells, 2nd Ed.,
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[6] Ventsel E. and Krauthammer K. (2001): Thin Plates and Shells;
Marcel Decker Inc., New
[7] York.
[8] Willims, D. J. and Aalami, B. (1979): Thin Plate Design for In-Plane
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