Ocean Engineering, vol.37, pp.1048-1060, 2010 (SCI-Expanded)
Bending analysis of orthotropic
super-elliptical plates of uniform thickness was investigated. Optimum location
of the point supports was searched by minimizing the maximum absolute
deflection. The support location which minimizes the bending moments at the
supports was reported. The Ritz method was used and the total potential energy
functional was modified by introducing the Lagrange multipliers to improve the
accuracy of the stress resultants. The deflection and the bending moments
computed at various points for a large variety of plate shapes ranging from an
ellipse to a rectangle were checked with those of rectangular and elliptical
plates. Good agreement was obtained for both cases. The structural response was
found to be sensitive to support position.