Abstract: In this paper an analytical solution is proposed for the bending of uniformly loaded rectangular plates supported only by four intermediate columns, the edges and corners of which are all free. For several particular cases, the numerical results, which contain the column reaction and the values for the deflection and the bending moments at several points of the plate, are given.Calculations indicate that the method proposed in this paper is valid.

Key words: shear stress, blood flow, arterial flow, Galerkin approach