BEHAVIOR OF NON-PRISMATIC FOLDED PLATE l !' STRUCTURES

Abstract

The behavior of non-prismatic folded plate system is investigated here taking into account the effect of depth variation along the span, and the variation of the plate thickness. The study is based upon finite element technique. The used element has six degrees of freedom (including plate bending and plane stress action). Simply supported panel and continuous panels with infinite number of spans are considered. The effects of gravitational load and prestressing force in the longitudinal direction are studied.

A dimensionless parametric study is carried out. Many figures illustrate the relationships between deflections, longitudinal stresses, and transversal bending moments are plotted versus the variation of the mid span depth. A verification case has been solved to compare the results with experimental work by Trivedi (1983). This showed a good agreement.