Prof Leandro Palermo visited the Lodge recently and gave a lecture on the relationship between different Plate Theories in the Boundary Element Method. Leandro is Associate Director of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Campinas, where he is now in charge of the graduate programme on Structural Engineering. His fields of research are thin walled structures, geometrically and material non linear effects and Plate and Shell theory.
He refers to the differences between theories by Mindlin and Reissner on the distribution of stress across the thickness. Reissner's theory introduces an extra term which does not exist in the case of Mindlin's. This is important when trying to obtain the appropriate fundamental solution for each of the two theories.
Leandro related the two theories to the classical plate bending theory. He proposed the classical theory, with some additional terms to produce the right results to introduce the shear effect. Leandro thinks that the Mindlin formulation is more appropriate as it considers a better distribution of vertical forces.
The presentation was followed with great interest by the audience and a lively discussion ensued.
Wessex Institute