Bending of Moderately Thick Annular Sector Plates with Variable Thickness and General Boundary Conditions Using Extended Knatorovich Method

An analytical solution for bending of variable thickness annular sector plates is presented using the multiterm extended Kantorovich method (MTEKM). Utilizing the principle of minimum total potential energy the governing equations are derived based on the first-order shear deformation theory and converted into two sets of coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using MTEKM. Next, the derived sets of ODEs are solved analytically by the application of state-space method. To show the applicability of the present method various examples are investigated. Moreover, solid sector plates as well as rectangular plates are studied as special cases. Results of the present method are compared to those of other methods whenever possible, as well as results obtained by the finite-element method (FEM). It is found that the method proposed here exhibits a high convergence rate as well as presenting accurate results in all cases. (C) 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.