On canonical bending relationships for plates

In recent years, a series of papers have appeared on algebraic relationships between the solutions (e.g., deflections, buckling loads and frequencies) of a given higherorder plate theory and the classical plate theory. The bending relationships, for example, can be used to generate the transverse deflection of a plate according to the particular higher-order theory from the known deflection of the same problem according to the classical plate theory. In the present study relationships between the bending solutions of several higher-order plate theories and the classical plate theory are obtained in a canonical form (i.e., one set of relationships contain several theories and they can be specialized to a specific theory by assigning values to the constants appearing in the relationships). Numerical examples of bending solutions for rectangular plates with various boundary conditions are presented to show how the relations can be used to determine the deflections and bending moments for various theories. The relationships are validated by comparing the numerical results obtained using the relationships for the Mindlin plate theory against those computed using the ABAQUS finite element program.