The boundary element method for thick plates on a Winkler foundation

In this paper the application of the boundary element method to thick plates resting on a Winkler foundation is presented. The Reissner plate bending theory is used to model the plate behaviour. The Winkler foundation model is represented by continuous springs which are directly incorporated into the governing differential equation. The fundamental solutions are constructed using operator decoupling technique. These fundamental solutions represent three different cases depending on the problem constants. The explicit forms of the boundary and internal point kernels are given in all cases. Quadratic isoparametric boundary elements are used to model the plate boundary. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy of the present formulation. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.