Paper Title
An Integrated Kirchhoff Element For The Analysis Of Plates On Elastic Foundation
Abstract
Plates supported on elastic foundations are encountered in many Engineering applications. Conventionally such
systems can be analysed using regular plate bending element plus discrete soil springs. The present work aims at an element
formulation suitable for analysis of such systems without the use of explicit discrete soil springs. The scope ofthe work
includes static analysis of an isotropic rectangular plate resting on elastic foundation with various boundary conditions,
various types of load applications for varying properties of foundation. In this paper, finite element analysis has been carried
out for an isotropic rectangular plate by using a four noded Kirchhoff rectangular element with fourdegrees of freedom per
node, with Winkler model for Elastic foundation. The finite element formulation has been carried out by integrating the
properties of the plate with those of elastic foundation using Galerkin’s approach instead of the commonly used potential
energy approach. Numerical analysis has been carried out by suitable MATLAB code and the results obtained are in good
agreement with those reported in earlier studies.