Analysis of simply supported and clamped Reissner׳s plates on Pasternak-type foundation by the Boundary Element Method

The Boundary Element Method (BEM) is used in this work to the analysis of plates resting on Pasternak-type foundations, considering Reissner׳s theory. The present formulation is valid for simply supported and clamped boundary conditions, since for free edges additional equations are necessary. The used approach considers the fundamental solution already employed in the analysis of plates by the BEM. Integral equations that are used to solve the problem are presented, in which domain integrals related to foundation reactions are included. Since the foundation reactions are also unknowns to the problem, additional equations to the standard system are written. The region situated over the foundation is discretized into constant internal cells and the integrals related to the cells are transformed into integrals over the boundary of these cells. Continuous and discontinuous quadratic boundary elements are used in the numerical implementation. Some numerical examples are presented and results are compared with those obtained by other authors with different approaches and with analytical solutions.