Bending of Partially Loaded Sector Plates

An analytical solution is presented for the static analysis of orthotropic sector plates, with clamped and simply supported straight edges and any combination of boundary conditions along the circular edges. The sector could be subjected to any combination of patch, uniform, line, and concentrated loads. The sector is divided into radially supported and horizontally curved strips whose number depends on the type and number of loads. The solution for deflection of each plate strip employs the classical method of separation of variables, in which the basic functions in the angular (tangential) direction satisfy boundary conditions along the straight edges. The deflection of each strip is expressed in a single trigonometric series, and the loads are expressed in a corresponding series. The method is computer oriented. It is easy to program and is ideally suited for small computers. Convergence of the method is achieved by increasing the number of modes, rather than the number of elements.