Harmonic differential quadrature (HDQ) for axisymmetric bending analysis of thin isotropic circular plates

Abstract

Numerical solution to linear bending analysis of circular plates is obtained by the method of harmonic differential quadrature (HDQ). In the method of differential quadrature (DQ), partial space derivatives of a function appearing in a differential equation are approximated by means of a polynomial expressed as the weighted linear sum of the function values at a preselected grid of discrete points. The method of HDQ that was used in the paper proposes a very simple algebraic formula to determine the weighting coefficients required by differential quadrature approximation without restricting the choice of mesh grids. Applying this concept to the governing differential equation of circular plate gives a set of linear simultaneous equations. Bending moments, stresses values in radial and tangential directions and vertical deflections are found for two different types of load. In the present study, the axisymmetric bending behavior is considered. Both the clamped and the simply supported edges are considered as boundary conditions. The obtained results are compared with existing solutions available from analytical and other numerical results such as finite elements and finite differences methods. A comparison between the HDQ results and the finite difference solutions for one example plate problem is also made. The method presented gives accurate results and is computationally efficient.