Analytical solutions for skewed thick plates subjected to transverse loading

This paper presents analytical solutions for skewed thick plates under transverse loading that have previously been unreported in the literature. The thick plate solution is obtained in a framework of an oblique coordinate system. The governing equation is first derived in the oblique coordinate system, and the solution is obtained using deflection and rotation as partial derivatives of a potential function developed in this research. The solution technique is applied to three illustrative application examples, and the results are compared with numerical solutions in the literature and those derived from the commercial finite element analysis package ANSYS 11. These results are in excellent agreement. The present solution may also be used to model skewed structures such as skewed bridges, to facilitate efficient routine design or evaluation analyses, and to form special elements for finite element analysis. At the same time, the analytical solution developed in this research could be used to develop methods to address post-buckling and dynamic problems.