Three-dimensional static solutions of rectangular plates by variant differential quadrature method

An endeavor to exploit three-dimensional elasticity solutions for bending and buckling of rectangular plates via the differential quadrature (DQ) and harmonic differential quadrature (HDQ) methods is performed. Unlike other works, the priority of this paper is to examine the computational characteristics of the two methods; therefore, we focus our studies only on the simply supported and clamped rectangular plates. To start with, we first outline the basic equations and boundary conditions describing the bending and buckling of rectangular plates followed by normalizing and discretizing them according to the DQ and HDQ algorithms. The resulting algebraic equation systems are then solved to obtain the solutions. Based on these solutions, the computational characteristics of the DQ and HDQ methods are investigated in terms of their numerical performances. It is found that the DQ method displays obvious superior convergence characteristics over the HDQ method for the three-dimensional static analysis of rectangular plates.