Bending of Plates on Thin Elastomeric Foundations

Closed-form and series solutions are presented for the bending of plates bonded to a thin elastomeric foundation which is in turn bonded to a rigid substrate. The standard fourth-order governing differential equation of a classical Winkler elastic foundation becomes a sixth-order equation for the case of an incompressible foundation. Oscillation decay rates are shown to be significantly different from those of the Winkler solution due to the incompressibility of the elastomer.