Long Nonprismatic Folded Plate Structures

A theory is presented for the analysis of long nonprismatic folded plates, which may consist of combinations of tapered and rectangular plate elements. This is a natural extension of ordinary folded plate theory and is based on a method of nodal analysis. Corrections are considered for the effects of relative joint displacements. Application of the theory is not limited to cases of similar loadings, and prismatic folded plates can be analyzed as special cases. A computer program developed for applying the theory is described. Examples illustrating applications of the theory are presented. Studies of varying the plate taper in a structure show that the effects of relative joint displacements are large in regions where the tapered plates are narrow. It is also shown that elementary beam theory may be very inaccurate in predicting the stresses in interior elements of nonprismatic folded plates.