Author(s)

M.S. Nerantzaki

Abstract

The Analog Equation Method (AEM) is applied to the analysis of plates with variable thickness. The non-homogeneous fourth order partial differential equation with variable coefficients describing the behavior of the plate is substituted by the equation for plates with constant thickness subjected to an "appropriate" fictitious load, under the same boundary conditions. After establishing the fictitious load following a procedure based on BEM, the solution is obtained from the equivalent problem. Some example problems are presented which illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of AEM 1 Introduction The Analog Equation Method (AEM), developed recently by Katsikadelis [1], has been already effectively employed to obtain the solution of various problems in engineering di

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