The theory of beams and plates on elastic foundations is one of the most important fields of·study in mechanics. Large number of paMrs have appeared on the subjectll’ and most of the studies in this field were based on the Winkler-Zimmermann hypothesis. H. Hertz (1886) was the first to give a complete analysis of floating elastic plates. Wymen'” and MeyerhoflO’ analysed ice sheets as floating plates on liquid foundations.. An excellent account of plates on elastic foundations is available in the classical book”ofTimosheltklr. ” and Woinsky-Kreiger”‘. E. Reissner'” analysed thin plates on Winkler foundation having variety of boundary conditions including non-linear effects. Sinha'” solved the problem for large deflections and Woinsky-Kreiger’?) and Kaczkowski(8) solved the problem for anisotropic plates. Y.Y. Yu'” solved ;the problem for simultaneous axial and lateral loads.