Three-dimensional elastic deformation of functionally graded isotropic plates under point loading

In this paper, three-dimensional elastic deformation of isotropic functionally graded plates subjected to point loading is investigated using a combination of analytical and computational means. The analytical approach is based on the displacement functions method, while numerical modeling, which requires high accuracy in the representation of the point loading, uses GALERKIN type finite element method. Three different plate geometries are examined for validation purposes, and the difficulties associated with an optimum choice of the element size are discussed. It is shown that by using a posteriori error estimation based on the equivalent stress measure accurate results can be obtained even in the neighborhood of the point loading.