Assemblage Method for Folded-Plate Analysis

A method is proposed for the elastic analysis of isotropic or orthotropic folded plate structures. In this method, harmonic functions that satisfy the boundary condition in the longitudinal direction are used in conjunction with exponential functions for the transverse direction. Stiffness matrices for both bending and in-plane actions have been developed for a plate with an orthotropic elastic property, and by dividing the folded plate structure into a number of plate elements bounded geometrically by lines of fold. Any combination of loadings may be considered. After obtaining the joint displacements, the stresses and displacements at any point of the structure are readily calculated. A special digital computer program is developed for the analysis.