ANALYSIS OF HOMOGENEOUS AND NON-HOMOGENEOUS PLATES

Plate theory is an old branch of solid mechanics - the first development of a general plate theory was made by Kirchhoff more than 150 years ago. After that many improvements were suggested; at the same time some research was focussed on the establishment of a consistent plate theory. Plate-like structural elements are widely used in classical application fields like mechanical and civil engineering, but also in some new fields (electronics, medicine among others). This paper gives a brief overview of the main theoretical directions in the theory of elastic plates. Additional information is available in the literature.