THIS IS THE DEFINITION

BEST REGARDS

Thankyou so much Junied Bakr and Nesrine El Houari

Dear Abdul Qader,

I understand that this issue is a bit confusing.

Plaxis considers that the plate bending element that appears in the mesh as a line has a proper weight.

Due to the fact that the true volume the beam/plate should assume is already occupied by plain strain soil elements, the weight w of the beam is represents the additional weight from the beam/plate as compared with the soil occupying the beam/plate's volume.

w is therefore the difference between the beam and the soil occuping its true volume.

Hopefully this is clearly understood.

Kind regards,

Hesham Elshazly