Timber Plate Dynamics with Space-Time Finite Element

A new space-time finite element formulation for dynamic analysis of timber plates is presented. The method is based on an unconventional Hamilton variational principle and a special technique in time domain interpolation is employed. For the simple case of solid wood plates under sinusoidal driving forces the results of the proposed method are compared with the results of the methods Newmark-β and Wilson-θ as well as the exact solutions. The results show that the proposed spacetime finite element method exhibits improved accuracy and precision in the dynamic analysis.