Vibration of skew plates by the MLS-Ritz method

This paper presents a study on the vibration of skew plates by a numerical method, the moving least square Ritz (MLS-Ritz) method which was proposed by the authors in a previous study [Zhou L, Zheng WX. A novel numerical method for the vibration analysis of plates. Computational mechanics WCCM VI in conjunction with APCOM’04, Beijing, China, 5-10 September 2004; Zhou L, Zheng WX. MLS-Ritz method for vibration analysis of plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 2006;290(3-5):968-90]. One of the most challenging numerical difficulties in analysing the vibration of a skew plate with a large skew angle is the slow convergence due to the stress singularities at the obtuse corners of the plate. The MLS-Ritz method is employed in this paper to address such problem. This method utilises the moving least square technique to establish the trial function for the transverse displacement of a skew plate and the Ritz method is applied to derive the governing eigenvalue equation for the skew plate. The boundary conditions of the plate are enforced through a point substitution technique that forces the MLS-Ritz trial function satisfying the essential boundary conditions along the plate edges. Due to the flexibility of the arrangement of the MLS-Ritz grid points, more grid points can be placed around the obtuse corners of a skew plate so as to address the stress singularity problem at the corners. A series of cases for rhombic plates of various edge support conditions are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the MLS-Ritz method.     

Vibration of circular plate with multiple eccentric circular perforations by the Rayleigh-Ritz method

The free vibration of a circular plate with multiple perforations is analyzed by using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Admissible functions are assumed to be separable functions of radial and tangential coordinates. Trigonometric functions are assumed in the circumferential direction. The radial shape functions are the boundary characteristic orthogonal polynomials generated following the Gram-Schmidt recurrence scheme. The assumed functions are used to estimate the kinetic and the potential energies of the plate depending on the number and the position of the perforations. The eigenvalues, representing the dimensionless natural frequencies, are compared with the results obtained using Bessel functions, where the exact solution is available. Moreover, the eigenvectors, which are the unknown coefficients of the Rayleigh-Ritz method, are used to present the mode shapes of the plate. To validate the analytical results of the plates with multiple perforations, experimental investigations are also performed. Two unique case studies that are not addressed in the existing literature are considered. The results of the Rayleigh-Ritz method are found to be in good agreement with those from the experiments. Although the method presented can be employed in the vibration analysis of plates with different boundary conditions and shapes of the perforations, circular perforations that are free on the edges are studied in this paper. The results are presented in terms of dimensionless frequencies and mode shapes.     

Approximation formulae for natural frequencies of simply supported skew plates

By using the reduction method proposed previously by the author and the exact relation between natural frequencies of an isotropic simply supported skew plate and a skew membrane with the same boundary shape, a few approximation formulae for estimating the natural frequency of simply supported isotropic and orthotropic skew plates are derived from the natural frequency of skew membranes without solving the partial differential equation governing the free vibration of the orthotropic skew plate.     

Vibration of rectangular Mindlin plates resting on non-homogenous elastic foundations

This paper is concerned with the vibration behaviour of rectangular Mindlin plates resting on non-homogenous elastic foundations. A rectangular plate is assumed to rest on a non-homogenous elastic foundation that consists of multi-segment Winkler-type elastic foundations. Two parallel edges of the plate are assumed to be simply supported and the two remaining edges may have any combinations of free, simply supported or clamped conditions. The plate is first divided into subdomains along the interfaces of the multi-segment foundations. The Levy solution approach associated with the state space technique is employed to derive the analytical solutions for each subdomain. The domain decomposition method is used to cater for the continuity and equilibrium conditions at the interfaces of the subdomains. First-known exact solutions for vibration of rectangular Mindlin plates on a non-homogenous elastic foundation are obtained. The vibration of square Mindlin plates partially resting on an elastic foundation is studied in detail. The influence of the foundation stiffness parameter, the foundation length ratio and the plate thickness ratio on the frequency parameters of square Mindlin plates is discussed. The exact vibration solutions presented in this paper may be used as benchmarks for researchers to check their numerical methods for such a plate vibration problem. The results are also important for engineers to design plates supported by multi-segment elastic foundations.     

A novel approach for in-plane/out-of-plane frequency analysis of functionally graded circular/annular plates

An exact closed-form frequency equation is presented for free vibration analysis of circular and annular moderately thick FG plates based on the Mindlin's first-order shear deformation plate theory. The edges of plate may be restrained by different combinations of free, soft simply supported, hard simply supported or clamped boundary conditions. The material properties change continuously through the thickness of the plate, which can vary according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents, whereas Poisson's ratio is set to be constant. The equilibrium equations which govern the dynamic stability of plate and its natural boundary conditions are derived by the Hamilton's principle. Several comparison studies with analytical and numerical techniques reported in literature and the finite element analysis are carried out to establish the high accuracy and superiority of the presented method. Also, these comparisons prove the numerical accuracy of solutions to calculate the in-plane and out-of-plane modes. The influences of the material property, graded index, thickness to outer radius ratios and boundary conditions on the in-plane and out-of-plane frequency parameters are also studied for different functionally graded circular and annular plates.     

Vibration of composite plates with internal supports

The free vibration of rectangular laminated composite plates with arbitrary support conditions along the edges, internal line supports and discrete point supports are studied using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Polynomial approximation functions are selected to satisfy all essential boundary conditions along the edges of the plate and to vanish along line supports parallel to the co-ordinate axes. Straight line supports at an angle from the co-ordinate axes and curved line supports are modeled by introducing several point supports along the line. Zero displacement constraints at the point support locations are enforced using the Lagrange multiplier technique. The plate constitutive equations are expressed in terms of stiffness invariants and the fundamental natural frequency is maximized by selecting the appropriate lay-up. Several examples are presented to illustrate the versatility of the approach and provide results not previously available. The influence of the number of plies in the laminate, lay-up, material properties and plate aspect ratios are investigated.     

Frequency solutions for circular plates with internal supports and discontinuous boundaries

The paper presents a study of the free-flexural vibration analysis of circular plates continuous over point supports, partial internal curved supports, and with mixed-edge boundary conditions. An approximate model which combines the advantages of the Rayleigh-Ritz and the Lagrangian multiplier methods is developed for analyzing this class of circular plate problems. The Rayleigh-Ritz method is used to formulate plates with classical boundary conditions, such as free, simply-supported or clamped, while the Lagrangian multiplier method is used to handle plates with point supports, partial internal curved supports and mixed-edge boundary conditions. The admissible pb-2 Ritz function consists of the product of a two-dimensional polynomial and a basic function. The basic function is defined by the product of the equations of the prescribed piecewise-continuous boundary shape each raised to the power of 0, 1 or 2, corresponding to free, simply-supported or clamped edge, respectively. The set of functions automatically satisfies all the kinematic boundary conditions of the plate at the outset. The geometric boundary conditions associated with the internal supports and discontinuous edges are simulated using a sufficient number of closely-spaced point constraints. Numerical results for several selected plate problems are presented to demonstrate the various features and accuracy of the present method.     

Free vibration analysis of functionally graded plates with multiple circular and non-circular cutouts

Cutouts are inevitable in structures due to practical consideration.In order to investigate the free vibration of functionally graded plates with multiple circular and non-circular cutouts,finite eleme...     

Axisymmetric free vibration of thick annular plates

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the axisymmetric free vibration of moderately thick annular plates using the differential quadrature method (DQM). The plates are described by Mindlin’s first-order shear-deformation theory. The first five axisymmetric natural frequencies are presented for uniform annular plates, of various radii and thickness ratios, with nine possible combinations of free, clamped and simply supported boundary conditions at the inner and outer edges of the plates. The accuracy of the method is established by comparing the DQM results with some exact and finite element numerical solutions and, therefore, the present DQM results could serve as a benchmark for future reference. The convergence characteristics of the method for thick plate eigenvalue problems are investigated and the versatility and simplicity of the method is established.     

Natural frequencies of shear deformable rhombic plates with clamped and simply supported edges

The natural vibrations of thick and thin rhombic plates with clamped and simply supported edges are analyzed, using assemblages of nine-node Lagrangian isoparametric quadrilateral C⁰ continuous finite elements based on a higher-order shear deformable thick plate theory. Here, additional nodal displacement degrees of freedom are derived by retaining higher-order powers of the thickness coordinate in the in-plane displacement fields, which in turn allows for the proper representation of the transverse shear strains of thick plates. Essential rotary inertia terms are derived and included in the present analysis. Nondimensional frequencies are calculated for thick and thin rhombic plates having various combinations of clamped and simply supported edge conditions, and skew angles. The efficacy of using higher-order shear deformable plate finite elements for predicting the in-plane vibration modes of rhombic plates is found to increase as the span-to-thickness ratio decreases and the skew angle increases. The present work shows that higher-order shear deformable finite elements essentially eliminate the transverse shear over-correction of thick rhombic plate frequencies that is produced when finite elements based on the widely used first-order Reissner-Mindlin plate theory are utilized.     

Strongly nonlinear free vibration of four edges simply supported stiffened plates with geometric imperfections

This article investigated the strongly nonlinear free vibration of four edges simply supported stiffened plates with geometric imperfections. The von Karman nonlinear strain-displacement relationships are applied. The nonlinear vibration of stiffened plate is reduced to a one-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system by assuming mode shapes. The Multiple scales Lindstedt-Poincare method (MSLP) and Modified Lindstedt-Poincare method (MLP) are used to solve the governing equations of vibration. Numerical examples for stiffened plates with different initial geometric imperfections are presented in order to discuss the influences to the strongly nonlinear free vibration of the stiffened plate. The results showed that: the frequency ratio reduced as the initial geometric imperfections of plate increased, which showed that the increase of the initial geometric imperfections of plate can lead to the decrease of nonlinear effect; by comparing the results calculated by MSLP method, using MS method to study strongly nonlinear vibration can lead to serious mistakes.     

Levy solutions for vibration of multi-span rectangular plates

This paper presents the Levy method to investigate the vibration behaviour of multi-span rectangular plates. The Levy method is applicable and analytical for rectangular plates with at least two parallel simply supported edges. The continuity at an interface between two spans is maintained by imposing both the essential and natural boundary conditions along the interface. The impact of the internal line supports on the vibration behaviour of the plates is investigated by varying both the number of internal lines and the line positions. Results for the vibration of two- and three-span rectangular plates are presented, in which the first-known exact solutions for plates involving free edges are included. The present results may serve as benchmark solutions for such plates.     

Free vibration of cantilevered arbitrary triangular Mindlin plates

This paper presents a free vibration analysis of thick cantilevered arbitrary triangular plates based on the Mindlin shear deformation theory. The solutions are computed using the recently developed pb-2 Rayleigh—Ritz method. The actual triangular plate is first mapped onto a basic square plate, and the deflections and rotations of the plate are approximated by Ritz functions defined as products of two-dimensional polynomials in the basic square plate domain and a basic function. The basic function satisfies the geometric boundary conditions at the outset and is chosen as the boundary expression of the cantilevered edge. Stiffness and mass matrices are integrated numerically over the domain of the basic square plate using Gaussian quadrature. Wherever possible, the present results are verified by comparison with existing analytical and experimental values from the open literature. To the authors' knowledge, first known results of natural frequencies for cantilevered arbitrary triangular Mindlin plates are presented for a wide range of geometries and thicknesses. These results are valuable to design engineers for checking their natural frequency calculations and may also serve as benchmark values for future numerical techniques and software packages for thick plate analysis. The influence of shear deformation and rotary inertia on the natural frequency parameters are examined.     

Natural frequencies of stepped thickness rectangular plates

This paper presents the natural frequencies of stepped thickness square and rectangular plates together with the mode shapes of vibration. The transverse deflection of a stepped thickness plate is written in a series of the products of the deflection functions of beams parallel to the edges satisfying the boundary conditions, and the frequency equation of the plate is derived by the energy method. By use of the frequency equation, the natural frequencies (the eigenvalues of vibration) and the mode shapes are calculated numerically in good accuracy for square and rectangular plates with edges simply supported or elastically restrained against rotation, having square, circular or elliptical stepped thickness, from which the effects of the stepped thickness on the vibration are studied.     

Buckling and vibration of stiffened plates subjected to partial edge loading

The buckling and vibration characteristics of stiffened plates subjected to in-plane partial and concentrated edge loadings are studied using finite element method. The initial stresses are obtained considering the pre-buckling conditions. Buckling loads and vibration frequencies are determined for different plate aspect ratios, edge conditions and different partial non-uniform edge loading cases. The non-uniform loading may also be caused due to the supports on the edges. The analysis presented determines the stresses all over the region for different kinds of loading and edge conditions. In the structural modelling, the plate and the stiffeners are treated as separate elements where the compatibility between these two types of elements is maintained. The vibration characteristics are discussed and the results are compared with those available in the literature. Buckling results show that the stiffened plate is less susceptible to buckling for position of loading near the supported edges and near the position of stiffeners as well.     

A semi-analytical approach for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of trapezoidal plates

This paper presents a semi-analytical approach for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of skew and trapezoidal plates subjected to out-of-plane loads. The thin elastic plate theory with nonlinear von Kármán strains is used for the nonlinear large deflection analysis of the plate. The solution of the governing nonlinear partial differential equations with variable coefficients is reduced to an iterative solution of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using the multi-term extended Kantorovich method. The geometry of the trapezoidal plate is mapped into a rectangular computational domain. Parallelogram (skew) plates are considered as a particular case of the general trapezoidal ones. The capabilities and convergence of the method are numerically examined through comparison with other semi-analytical and numerical methods and with finite element analyses. The applicability of the approach to the nonlinear large deflection analysis of skew and trapezoidal plates is demonstrated through various numerical examples. The numerical study focuses on combinations of geometry, loading and boundary conditions that are beyond the applicability of other semi-analytical methods.     

基于一阶剪切变形理论的CNTRC板的自由振动分析

基于Reissner-Mindlin一阶剪切变形假设（First-order shear deformation theory,FSDT）,考虑碳纳米管（Carbon nanotube,CNT）功能梯度材料的不均匀性,建立CNT梯度增强复合薄板结构的自由振动分析模型,模型中考虑了CNT增强体的分布形式、体积率、边界条件及结构的边厚比等因素对该复合薄板结构自由振动响应的影响。克服了经典板理论中不考虑剪切应力的缺陷,通过四边简支（Simply supported,SSSS）板的振动响应特征验证模型的准确性,利用所建模型对CNT梯度增强薄板结构进行了自由振动分析及模态分析。研究表明：CNT增强复合薄板结构的自振频率随着CNT体积率的增加发生几乎线性化的增长;不同的CNT分布形式对振动频率的影响：X型分布的功能梯度板的自振频率最大,O型分布的功能梯度板的自振频率最小,均一及V型分布的固有频率大小介于两者之间。边界条件对板振动形态的影响：由于四边固支（Clamped,CCCC）的边界条件比SSSS约束性更强,其对于边厚比的变化更灵敏,并且随着宽厚比值的增大,边界条件产生的影响越来越大。CNT增强体分布形式、体积率、结构边厚比及边界条件对复合薄板结构自由振动的频率及振动模态有显著的影响。     

Exact solutions for the free in-plane vibrations of rectangular plates

All classical boundary conditions including two distinct types of simple support boundary conditions are formulated by using the Rayleigh quotient variational principle for rectangular plates undergoing in-plane free vibrations. The direct separation of variables is employed to obtain the exact solutions for all possible cases. It is shown that the exact solutions of natural frequencies and mode shapes can be obtained when at least two opposite plate edges have either type of the simply-supported conditions, and some of the exact solutions were not available before. The present results agree well with FEM results, which show that the present solutions are correct and the direct separation of variables is practical. The exact solutions can be taken as the benchmarks for the validation of approximate methods.     

Free vibration analysis of arbitrary shaped thick plates by differential cubature method

In this paper, a new numerical solution technique, the differential cubature method, is applied to solve the free vibration problems of arbitrary shaped thick plates. The basic idea of the differential cubature method is to express a linear differential operation such as a continuous function or any order of partial derivative of a multivariable function, as a weighted linear sum of discrete function values chosen within the overall domain of a problem. By using the differential cubature procedure, the governing differential equations and boundary conditions are transformed into sets of linear homogeneous algebraic equations. This is an eigenvalue problem, of which the eigenvalues can be calculated numerically. The subspace iterative method is employed in search of the free vibration frequency parameters. Detailed formulations are presented, and the method is examined here for its suitability for solving the vibration problems of moderately thick plates governed by Mindlin shear deformation theory. The applicability, efficiency and simplicity of the method are demonstrated through solving some example plate vibration problems of different shapes. The numerical accuracy of the method is ascertained by comparing the vibration frequency solutions with those of existing literatures.     

Vibration and buckling characteristics of weld-bonded rectangular plates using the flexibility function approach

Structures with a combination of spot welds and adhesive bonding, often referred to as weld-bonded structures, are likely to see increasing usage in automotive and other engineering structures. The present study considers a representative weld-bonded rectangular plate having simple supports on two opposite edges and weld-bonded support conditions with periodic spot welds along the other two edges. The study shows that the flexibility function approach for modeling free edges with point supports [Bapat AV, Venkatramani N, Suryanarayan S. Simulation of classical edge conditions by finite elastic restraints in the vibration analysis of plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1988;120(1):127–40; Bapat AV, Venkatramani N, Suryanarayan S. A new approach for the representation of a point support in the analysis of plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1988;120(1):107–25; Bapat AV, Venkatramani N, Suryanarayan S. The use of flexibility functions with negative domains in the vibration analysis of asymmetrically point-supported rectangular plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1988;124(3):555–76; Bapat AV, Suryanarayan S. Free vibrations of periodically point-supported rectangular plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1989;132(3):491–509; Bapat AV, Suryanarayan S. The flexibility function approach to vibration analysis of rectangular plates with arbitrary multiple point supports on the edges. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1989;128(2):203–33; Bapat AV, Suryanarayan S. Free vibrations of rectangular plates with interior point supports. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1989;134(2):291–313; Bapat AV, Suryanarayan S. Importance of satisfaction of point-support compatibility conditions in the simulation of point supports by the flexibility function approach. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1990;137(2):191–207; Bapat AV, Suryanarayan S. A fictitious foundation approach to vibration analysis of plates with interior point. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1992;155(2):325–41; Bapat AV, Suryanarayan S. A theoretical basis for the experimental realization of boundary conditions in the vibration analysis of plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration 1993;163(3):463–78], used in the direct series solution of the governing differential equations, can be employed very effectively to study the vibration and buckling characteristics of the weld-bonded rectangular plates. This is done by using a flexibility function constructed in terms of Fourier components to model the weld-bonded edge that represents the finite uniform flexibility of the adhesively bonded segment of the weld-bonded edge along with zero flexibility at the spot welds modeled as discrete point supports. A detailed convergence study shows that by a proper choice of the number of terms used to represent the flexibility function and the number of terms in the Levy sine series for the solution of the plate displacement, accurate results can be obtained for vibration and buckling characteristics. This paper also includes a parametric study undertaken to show the effect of plate geometry, number of spot welds and adhesive joint parameters. The paper also discusses how such parametric studies can be of use to the designer in arriving at an optimal joint configuration of weld-bonded rectangular plates from linear elastic buckling and free vibration considerations.