Static analysis of point-supported super-elliptical plates

Abstract

This paper reports the static analysis of point-supported super-elliptical plates of uniform thickness subjected to a uniformly distributed lateral load. The plate perimeter was defined by a super-elliptic function with a power, corresponding to shapes ranging from an ellipse to a rectangle. The analysis was based on the Kirchhoff-Love plate theory and the computations were carried out by the Ritz method. Lagrange multipliers were used to satisfy the boundary conditions. Isotropic and homogeneous plates with 20 different shapes were examined for two distinct aspect ratios. Convergence studies were performed for the central deflection and the central bending moments. The results were checked against those of a corner-supported square plate and good agreement was obtained.