Stresses in heterogeneous plates

The numerical solution described in the preceding section shows that the heterogeneity of a plate affects seriously the strain distribution but not so much the stress distribution (although this need not be true in general). This conclusion which cannot be immediately introduced from the known knowledge of elasticity, tends to support the assumption made by Muller and Macherauch. Electronic computers allow to find numerical solutions of complicated differential equations. But direct application of an electronic computer to the evaluation of a problem such as treated here is not possible, since the boundary conditions are not prescribed concretely. The solution obtained in this paper also applies to more complicated problems, such as the problems of heterogeneous plates containing holes or notches, because it represents the solution at points distant from the holes or notches. Using this solution, one can prescribe the boundary conditions for those problems concretely, hence numerical solutions can be obtained by the use of an electronic computer.