Approximate analysis of rigid plate loading on elastic multi-layered systems

Abstract

Games software is well known for its capability to compute responses for uniformly distributed load acting on the surface of a multi-layered linear elastic system. In this study a method was developed to approximate rigid plate loading to be used in GAMES software. When a rigid plate load is acting on the surface of a multilayered system, the resulting interface contact stress distribution is not uniform. Since contact stress distribution between rigid plate and semi-infinite medium is well known, this distribution was approximated using uniformly distributed multiple loads and analysis performed using Games. Results have shown good agreement with the theory for the case of a semi-infinite medium. Furthermore, extension of this method to multilayered system has shown good results if the ratio of the first layer thickness over the loading plate radius is greater than 2