Three-Dimensional Elastic Stresses of Circular Plate in Couple-Stress Theory : Comparison with Thin-Plate Theory

In the linear couple-stress theory, three-dimensional elastic stress analysis of a plate is carried out in order to evaluate the thin-plate theory. The problem treated here is the axisymmetric bending of a clamped circular plate subjected to an annularly distributed load. For this analysis, use in made of the indirect fictitious-boundary integral method. From the results, the applicability of the thin-plate theory is investigated, and the effects of various parameters, such as the characteristic length and the ration of bending-twisting module, on the behaviour of a plate are made clear.