Convergence studies for static analysis of thin plates on Pasternak Foundations

Convergence studies for the static analysis of thin plates resting on Pasternak foundations is performed. The plates are discretized using two different finite elements, the formulations of which are based on the Kirchhoff and Reissner-Mindlin plate theories. The shear locking problem which arises when full integration is used in the finite element implementation of Reissner-Mindlin plate theory is eliminated with selective integration. The Pasternak foundation is accounted for by adding the parameter matrices of an existing soil finite element to the stiffness matrix terms of the plate finite elements corresponding to deflections. Convergence rates for different boundary conditions, plate thicknesses and soil parameters are obtained and given comparatively through numerical examples.