Analysis of moderately thick circular plates using differential quadrature method

In this paper, the axisymmetric bending analysis of moderately thick circular plates based on the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory is conducted numerically by using the differential quadrature (DQ) method. The governing equations and boundary conditions of the problem are transformed by the DQ procedures into a set of linear algebraic equations, from which the solutions of the problem are determined. Several example plate problems are presented in detail to reveal the convergence characteristics, accuracy, and versatility of the DQ method for the bending analysis of Reissner-Mindlin plates subject to various boundary conditions and loading conditions. The results from the numerical simulations are compared with the exact solutions to validate the accuracy of the DQ method. A comparison between the DQ results and the finite element solutions for the example plate problems is also made.