An eight-node curvilinear differential quadrature formulation for Reissner/Mindlin plates (Q1371735)

We present the differential quadrature (DQ) method for the bending of quadrilateral Reissner/Mindlin plates with curvilinear boundaries. The curvilinear quadrilateral is mapped onto a square domain by a geometric coordinate transformation. This geometric mapping technique transforms the governing differential equations and boundary conditions from the physical domain onto the computational domain. The DQ procedures are then applied to discretise the transformed set of differential equations and boundary conditions into a system of linear algebraic equations. The numerical solutions to the problem are obtained by solving this system of linear algebraic equations. Examples illustrating the accuracy and convergence of the DQ method for Reissner/Mindlin plates with curvilinear boundaries are presented.