Abstract: | A finite element displacement formulation based on Reissner's thick plate theory is presented for the bending analysis of annular and sector plates. An annular element and an annular sector element, associated with six and twenty degrees of freedom, respectively, are developed. One of the significant features of these elements, which include both bending and shear deformation effects and which conform with respect to all degrees of freedom considered, is the ability to satisfy exactly the condition of vanishing shear stress resultant along a free edge. Numerical results are presented for substantiating the proposed procedure. |