A finite volume method for analysing the bending deformation of thick and thin plates Original Research Article

The formulation of a novel finite volume based procedure for determining deformations and moment distributions within transversely loaded plates is described in detail. The formulation employs the Mindlin theory of plate deformation. Transverse displacement and bending moment distributions are determined for a number of test problems. The effect of mesh refinement upon the accuracy of the displacement and moment fields is investigated. The finite volume procedure exhibits a number of interesting features; it is conservative in the sense that equilibrium is satisfied locally within each cell and across cell boundaries, it has the capacity to represent the behaviour of thick and thin plates and it is geometrically versatile because the cell shapes can take the form of multifaceted polygons.