Abstract
The proposed method of structural analysis is suitable for the use of a small computer. The structures considered here consist of one way continuous rectangular plates with two opposite free edges and arbitrary intermediate supporting conditions. One of the features of this method is a drastic reduction in the number of degrees of freedom needed for numerical analysis in comparison with the FEM, and the other is the efficient formulation of a stiffness matrix method combined with a relaxation technique. As for the detailed procedure, the displacement functions in series form and the point-matching method are adopted to derive the stiffness matrix of large-size rectangular plate panels. The relaxation technique is developed in a way that is compatible with the stiffness matrix method. In addition, the initial unbalanced quantities required in the iteration process are given by an elementary beam theory.
