Plate Theory and the Edge Effects

In its general form, a plate is a three-dimensional right cylindrical body having a plane of symmetry called the midplane. The bounding surface, in three distinct parts, consists of a cylindrical component known as the edge-surface, normal to the midplane, together with a pair of faces which, symmetrically placed with respect to the midplane, close the ends of the cylinder. We shall refer to the intersection of the edge-surface with the midplane as the edge-curve: for a finite plate this consists of one or more simple closed curves. The distance between the faces, taken along the normal to the midplane at a given point, measures the thickness of the plate at that point.