Large deflection analysis of plates on elastic foundation by the boundary element method

A boundary element method is developed for the large deflection analysis of thin elastic plates resting on elastic foundation. The subgrade reaction may depend linearly (Winkler-type) or nonlinearly on the deflection as well as on the point coordinates (nonhomogeneous subgrade). Moderately large deflections are examined as described by the von Karman equations. The plate may have arbitrary shape and its boundary may be subjected to any type of boundary condition. The proposed method uses the fundamental solution of the linear plate theory and treats the nonlinearities as well as the subgrade reaction as unknown domain forces. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the method and demonstrate its effectiveness and accuracy.