Analysis of Clamped Circular Plates with Large Deflections under Uniform Loading using Point Collocation Method

When the plate is under large lateral loads the maximum deflection of the thin plate is equal or larger than the thickness of plate. Because of these large displacements the mid-plane stretches, and hence the in-plane tensile stresses developed within the plate stiffen and add considerable load resistance to it. Due to the restrictions of analysis methods, researchers suggest using numerical methods for these kind of problems. Numerical methods includes Finite element method, Boundary element method, Finite difference method, Point collocation method, Ritz’s method, Galerkin’s method, etc. Some of numerical methods trying to change the problem from solve partial differential equation to solve a system of differential equations. In this paper circular plate with clamped edges under uniform loading and large deflections is researched by using point collocation method. So large deflection of plate is assumed as a function of small deflection of plate. This assumption convert the problem from solve partial differential equation to solve a system of differential equations that is easy to solve and has good convergence rate. Finally the results of this method are compared with the results from analyzing model in ABAQUS software and Timoshenko’s exact solution.