Stiffened and Continuous Annular Sector Plates

Summary

A computer oriented “exact” method of solution, entitled the “Analytical Strip Method” (ASM) of solution, is presented for the bending analysis of stiffened, continuous and uniformly loaded annular sector plates (truncated ring-shaped or horizontally curved). Any combination of clamped and simple supports could exist along the straight edges, while the circular edges could be clamped, simply supported or free. The sector is divided into radially supported and horizontally curved strips whose number depends on the number and location of the circular stiffeners (beams or rings) and column or point supports. The deflection of each strip is expressed in a single trigonometric series and the loads are expressed in a corresponding series. The stiffness formulation of the analytical strip method is based upon use of the displacement function for each strip, and the supporting beams and columns are incorporated in a manner mathematically consistent with the displacement function. Results are presented for stiffened and continuous plates with different edge conditions.