The Uflyand-Mindlin theory of vibrating plates is an extension of
Kirchhoff–Love plate theory that takes into account
shear deformations through-the-thickness of a plate. The theory was proposed in 1948 by Yakov Solomonovich Uflyand
[Uflyand, Ya. S.,1948, Wave Propagation by Transverse Vibrations of Beams and Plates, PMM: Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics, Vol. 12, 287-300 (in Russian)] (1916-1991) and in 1951 by
Raymond Mindlin with Mindlin making reference to Uflyand's work. Hence, this theory has to be referred to as Uflyand-Mindlin plate theory, as is done in the handbook by
Elishakoff
Isaac Elishakoff is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering Department in the Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. He is an authoritative figure in the broad area of mechanics. He has made several ...
, and in papers by Andronov, Elishakoff, Hache and Challamel, Loktev, Rossikhin and Shitikova and Wojnar. In 1994, Elishakoff suggested to neglect the fourth-order time derivative in Uflyand-Mindlin equations. A similar, but not identical, theory in static setting, had been proposed earlier by
Eric Reissner in 1945. Both theories are intended for thick plates in which the normal to the mid-surface remains straight but not necessarily perpendicular to the mid-surface. The Uflyand-Mindlin theory is used to calculate the
deformations and
stresses in a plate whose thickness is of the order of one tenth the planar dimensions while the Kirchhoff–Love theory is applicable to thinner plates.
The form of Uflyand-Mindlin plate theory that is most commonly used is actually due to Mindlin. The Reissner theory is slightly different and is a static counterpart of the Uflyand-Mindlin theory. Both theories include in-plane shear strains and both are extensions of Kirchhoff–Love plate theory incorporating first-order shear effects.
Uflyand-Mindlin's theory assumes that there is a linear variation of displacement across the plate thickness but that the plate thickness does not change during deformation. An additional assumption is that the normal stress through the thickness is ignored; an assumption which is also called the ''plane stress'' condition. On the other hand, Reissner's static theory assumes that the bending stress is linear while the shear stress is quadratic through the
thickness of the plate. This leads to a situation where the displacement through-the-thickness is not necessarily linear and where the plate thickness may change during deformation. Therefore, Reissner's static theory does not invoke the plane stress condition.
The Uflyand-Mindlin theory is often called the ''first-order shear deformation'' theory of plates. Since a first-order shear deformation theory implies a linear displacement variation through the thickness, it is incompatible with Reissner's static plate theory.
Mindlin theory
Mindlin's theory was originally derived for isotropic plates using equilibrium considerations by Uflyand.
A more general version of the theory based on energy considerations is discussed here.
Assumed displacement field
The Mindlin hypothesis implies that the displacements in the plate have the form
:
where
and
are the Cartesian coordinates on the mid-surface of the undeformed plate and
is the coordinate for the thickness direction,
are the in-plane displacements of the mid-surface,
is the displacement of the mid-surface in the
direction,
and
designate the angles which the normal to the mid-surface makes with the
axis. Unlike Kirchhoff–Love plate theory where
are directly related to
, Mindlin's theory does not require that
and
.
Strain-displacement relations
Depending on the amount of rotation of the plate normals two different approximations for the strains can be derived from the basic kinematic assumptions.
For small strains and small rotations the strain–displacement relations for Mindlin–Reissner plates are
:
The shear strain, and hence the shear stress, across the thickness of the plate is not neglected in this theory. However, the shear strain is constant across the thickness of the plate. This cannot be accurate since the shear stress is known to be parabolic even for simple plate geometries. To account for the inaccuracy in the shear strain, a shear correction factor (
) is applied so that the correct amount of internal energy is predicted by the theory. Then
:
Equilibrium equations
The equilibrium equations of a Mindlin–Reissner plate for small strains and small rotations have the form
:
where
is an applied out-of-plane load, the in-plane stress resultants are defined as
:
the moment resultants are defined as
:
and the shear resultants are defined as
:
:
Boundary conditions
The boundary conditions are indicated by the boundary terms in the principle of virtual work.
If the only external force is a vertical force on the top surface of the plate, the boundary conditions are
:
Stress–strain relations
The stress–strain relations for a linear elastic Mindlin–Reissner plate are given by
:
Since
does not appear in the equilibrium equations it is implicitly assumed that it does not have any effect on the momentum balance and is neglected. This assumption is also called the plane stress assumption. The remaining stress–strain relations for an
orthotropic material
In material science and solid mechanics, orthotropic materials have material properties at a particular point which differ along three orthogonal axes, where each axis has twofold rotational symmetry. These directional differences in strength ca ...
, in matrix form, can be written as
:
Then
:
and
:
For the shear terms
:
The extensional stiffnesses are the quantities
:
The bending stiffnesses are the quantities
:
Mindlin theory for isotropic plates
For uniformly thick, homogeneous, and isotropic plates, the stress–strain relations
in the plane of the plate are
:
where
is the Young's modulus,
is the Poisson's ratio, and
are the in-plane strains. The through-the-thickness shear
stresses and strains are related by
:
where
is the
shear modulus
In materials science, shear modulus or modulus of rigidity, denoted by ''G'', or sometimes ''S'' or ''μ'', is a measure of the elastic shear stiffness of a material and is defined as the ratio of shear stress to the shear strain:
:G \ \stack ...
.
Constitutive relations
The relations between the stress resultants and the generalized deformations are,
:
and
:
The bending rigidity is defined as the quantity
:
For a plate of thickness
(
of the following all indicates thickness), the bending rigidity has the form
:
Governing equations
If we ignore the in-plane extension of the plate, the governing equations are
:
In terms of the generalized deformations, these equations can be written as
:
:
The boundary conditions along the edges of a rectangular plate are
:
Relationship to Reissner's static theory
The canonical constitutive relations for shear deformation theories of isotropic
plates can be expressed as
[Lim, G. T. and Reddy, J. N., 2003, ''On canonical bending
relationships for plates'', International Journal of Solids and Structures, vol. 40,
pp. 3039–3067.][These equations use a slightly different sign convention than
the preceding discussion.]
:
Note that the plate thickness is
(and not
) in the above equations and