Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 June 2016
This paper considers the problem of a reinforced circular hole in a bent or twisted flat elastic plate having small deflections. The reinforcement is chosen so that the ratio of its radial width to the diameter of the hole is small; this implies that there is no radial stress variation across sections of the reinforcement. Using the classical theory for bending, expressions are obtained for the boundary conditions at the junction of the reinforcement and plate. The expressions are general in so far as they are also applicable to plates under the action of lateral loading. The following particular problems are considered: —(a) uniform bending about one or two axes, (b) uniform twisting about two axes. For the particular case of uniform bending about one axis, data has been obtained for the stress concentration around holes for plates and reinforcements having a reasonably wide range of practical dimensions.