Numerical study of grid distribution effect on accuracy of DQ analysis of beams and plates by error estimation of derivative approximation

The accuracy of global methods such as the differential quadrature (DQ) approach is usually sensitive to the grid point distribution. This paper is to numerically study the effect of grid point distribution on the accuracy of DQ solution for beams and plates. It was found that the stretching of grid towards the boundary can improve the accuracy of DQ solution, especially for coarse meshes. The optimal grid point distribution (corresponding to optimal stretching parameter) depends on the order of derivatives in the boundary condition and the number of grid points used. The optimal grid distribution may not be from the roots of orthogonal polynomials. This differs somewhat from the conventional analysis. This paper also proposes a simple and effective formulation for stretching the grid towards the boundary. The error distribution of derivative approximation is also studied, and used to analyze the effect of grid point distribution on accuracy of numerical solutions.