Approximate solutions for the shear center of plates of variable thickness (Q1311919)

In the case of Poisson's ratio \(\nu=0\) for the location of the shear center there exists an elementary exact solution. In this paper, the cases of non-zero values of \(\nu\) are numerically solved by different forms of the displacement approximation. The results from the quadratic approximation are confirmed by the solutions of a refined beam theory of 16th order (cubic approximation) and also by the finite element approach. The location of the shear center for cases with \(\nu\neq 0\) is nearly the same as that for \(\nu=0\).