8 Bending of Circular Plates

Circular plates are common in many structures such as nozzle covers, end closures in pressure vessels, and bulkheads in submarines and airplanes. The derivation of the classical equations for lateral bending of circular plates dates back to 1828 and is accredited to Poisson. He used polar coordinates to transfer the differential equations for the bending of a rectangular plate to circular plates. The first rigorous solution of the differential equation of circular plates for various loading and boundary conditions was made around 1900 and is credited to Love (1944).