Abstract
A mixed-variational principle is derived for the analysis of axisymmetric flexural interaction of a moderately thick circular plate resting in smooth contact with an isotropic elastic halfspace. In this approach, the transverse plate deflection, the bending moments and the shear force are treated as independent variables and are approximated by power series functions in terms of the radial coordinate and a set of undetermined parameters, which satisfy the boundary conditions applicable to the free edge of the plate. The undetermined parameters are evaluated by utilizing the stationary property of the derived variational functional. Numerical results are presented for various plate rigidities. It is found that, unlike the existing energy-based methods, the deflection and the flexural moments can be predicted by the proposed formulation with the same order of accuracy.
