Study of a vibrating plate: comparison between experimental (ESPI) and analytical results

Real-time electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) was used for tuning and visualization of natural frequencies of a trapezoidal plate. The plate was excited to resonant vibration by a sinusoidal acoustical source, which provided a continuous range of audio frequencies. Fringe patterns produced during the time-average recording of the vibrating plate—corresponding to several resonant frequencies—were registered. From these interferograms, calculations of vibrational amplitudes by means of zero-order Bessel functions were performed in some particular cases. The system was also studied analytically. The analytical approach developed is based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method and on the use of non-orthogonal right triangular co-ordinates. The deflection of the plate is approximated by a set of beam characteristic orthogonal polynomials generated by using the Gram–Schmidt procedure. A high degree of correlation between computational analysis and experimental results was observed.     

Vibration and stability of a circular plate of unidirectionally varying thickness

An analysis is presented for the vibration and stability of an elastically restrained circular plate of unidirectionally varying thickness subjected to an in-plane force. For this purpose, the transverse deflection of a circular plate of variable thickness is written in a series of the deflection functions of a uniform circular plate without the action of a force. The dynamical energies of the plate are evaluated analytically, and the frequency equation of the plate is derived by the Ritz method. The analysis is applied to circular plates of unidirectionally tapered or stepped thickness; the natural frequencies and the divergence loads are calculated numerically, and the effects of the varying thickness and edge conditions on the vibration and stability are studied.     

A variable kinematic Ritz formulation for vibration study of quadrilateral plates with arbitrary thickness

A new variable kinematic Ritz method applied to free vibration analysis of arbitrary quadrilateral thin and thick isotropic plates is presented. Carrera's unified formulation and the versatile pb-2 Ritz method are properly combined to build a powerful yet simple modeling and solution framework. The proposed technique allows to generate arbitrarily accurate Ritz solutions from a large variety of refined two-dimensional plate theories by expanding so-called Ritz fundamental nuclei of the plate mass and stiffness matrices. Theoretical development of the present methodology is described in detail. Convergence and accuracy of the method are examined through several examples on thin, moderately thick, and very thick plates of rectangular, skew, trapezoidal and general quadrilateral shapes, with an arbitrary combination of clamped, free and simply supported edges. Present results are compared with existing three-dimensional solutions from open literature. Maximum and average differences of various higher-order plate theories and three-dimensional results are also presented with the aim of providing useful guidelines on the choice of appropriate plate theory to get a desired accuracy on frequency parameters.     

Rayleigh-Ritz vibration analysis of rectangular Mindlin plates subjected to membrane stresses

A previously developed analysis of the flexural vibration of isotropic rectangular plates is extended to include the presence of a membrane stress system. The method of analysis is the Rayleigh-Ritz method and Mindlin plate theory is used which takes into account effects which are disregarded in the classical plate theory. As in the aforementioned earlier analysis the spatial variations of the deflection and two rotations over the plate middle surface are based on the use of Timoshenko beam functions. The membrane stress system comprises biaxial direct stress plus in-plane shearing stress and is uniform throughout the plate. Numerical results are presented for a number of types of plate and of applied stress which show the manner of variation of the frequencies of vibration as the intensity of stress changes. This manner of variation is similar in form to that demonstrated elsewhere by analyses based on the use of the classical plate theory but the magnitudes of the present calculated frequencies are considerably reduced for moderately thick plates.     

Free vibration of polar-orthotropic sector plates

The free vibration of ring-shaped polar-orthotropic sector plates is analyzed by the Ritz method using a spline function as an admissible function for the deflection of the plates. For this purpose, the transverse deflection of a sector plate is written in a series of the products of the deflection function of a sectorial beam and that of a circular beam satisfying the boundary conditions. The deflection function of the sectorial beam is approximately expressed by a quintic spline function, which satisfies the equation of flexural vibration of the beam at each point dividing the beam into small elements. The frequency equation of the plate is derived by the conditions for a stationary value of the Lagrangian. The present method is applied to ring-shaped polar-orthotropic sector plates with some combination of boundary conditions, and the natural frequencies and the mode shapes are calculated numerically up to higher modes. This method is very effective for the study of vibration problems of variously shaped anisotropic plates including these sector plates.     

Free vibration of size-dependent Mindlin microplates based on the modified couple stress theory

This paper develops a Mindlin microplate model based on the modified couple stress theory for the free vibration analysis of microplates. This non-classical plate model contains an internal material length scale parameter related to the material microstructures and is capable of interpreting the size effect that the classical Mindlin plate model is unable to describe. The higher-order governing equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived using the Hamilton principle. The p-version Ritz method is employed to determine the natural frequencies of the microplate with different boundary conditions. A detailed parametric study is conducted to study the influences of the length scale parameter, side-to-thickness ratio and aspect ratio on the free vibration characteristics of the microplate. It is found that the size effect is significant when the thickness of microplate is close to the material length scale parameter.     

Vibration and stability of a variable thickness annular plate subjected to a torque

The free vibration and stability of a variable thickness annular plate subjected to a torque are analyzed by the Ritz method. For this purpose, the transverse deflection of an annular plate is written in a series of the deflection functions of a uniform thickness annular plate without the action of a torque. The kinetic and strain energies of the plate are evaluated analytically and the frequency equation of the plate is derived by the conditions for a stationary value of the Lagrange functional. The present method is applied to annular plates with two types of radial thickness variation, power law and exponential, and the natural frequencies (the frequency parameters) and the divergence torques are calculated numerically, from which the effects of the varying thickness, inner/outer radii ratio and edge conditions are studied.     

Elastic wave field computation in multilayered nonplanar solid structures: a mesh-free semianalytical approach

Multilayered solid structures made of isotropic, transversely isotropic, or general anisotropic materials are frequently used in aerospace, mechanical, and civil structures. Ultrasonic fields developed in such structures by finite size transducers simulating actual experiments in laboratories or in the field have not been rigorously studied. Several attempts to compute the ultrasonic field inside solid media have been made based on approximate paraxial methods like the classical ray tracing and multi-Gaussian beam models. These approximate methods have several limitations. A new semianalytical method is adopted in this article to model elastic wave field in multilayered solid structures with planar or nonplanar interfaces generated by finite size transducers. A general formulation good for both isotropic and anisotropic solids is presented in this article. A variety of conditions have been incorporated in the formulation including irregularities at the interfaces. The method presented here requires frequency domain displacement and stress Green's functions. Due to the presence of different materials in the problem geometry various elastodynamic Green's functions for different materials are used in the formulation. Expressions of displacement and stress Green's functions for isotropic and anisotropic solids as well as for the fluid media are presented. Computed results are verified by checking the stress and displacement continuity conditions across the interface of two different solids of a bimetal plate and investigating if the results for a corrugated plate with very small corrugation match with the flat plate results.     

Three-dimensional free vibration analysis of isotropic rectangular plates using the B-spline Ritz method

This paper presents three-dimensional free vibration analysis of isotropic rectangular plates with any thicknesses and arbitrary boundary conditions using the B-spline Ritz method based on the theory of elasticity. The proposed method is formulated by the Ritz procedure with a triplicate series of B-spline functions as amplitude displacement components. The geometric boundary conditions are numerically satisfied by the method of artificial spring. To demonstrate the convergence and accuracy of the present method, several examples with various boundary conditions are solved, and the results are compared with other published solutions by exact and other numerical methods based on the theory of elasticity and various plate theories. Rapid, stable convergences as well as high accuracy are obtained by the present method. The effects of geometric parameters on the vibrational behavior of cantilevered rectangular plates are also investigated. The results reported here may serve as benchmark data for finite element solutions and future developments in numerical methods.     

Vibration and stability of a circular cylindrical shell subjected to a torque

An analysis is presented for the vibration and stability of a circular cylindrical shell subjected to a torque. The displacements of a circular shell are written in a series of beam eigenfunctions satisfying the boundary conditions. The kinetic and strain energies of the shell are evaluated analytically, and the frequency eauation of the shell is derived by the Ritz method. The method is applied to circular cylindrical shells under two types of boundary conditions at the edges; the natural frequencies and the divergence torques are calculated numerically, and the effects of the thickness ratio, length ratio and edge conditions on the vibration and stability are studied.     

Accurate vibration analysis of thick, cracked rectangular plates

This work applies the Ritz method to accurately determine the frequencies and nodal patterns of thick, cracked rectangular plates analyzed using Mindlin plate theory. Two types of cracked configuration are considered, namely, side crack and internal crack. To enhance the capabilities of the Ritz method in dealing with cracked plates, new sets of admissible functions are proposed to represent the behaviors of true solutions along the crack. The proposed admissible functions appropriately describe the stress singularity behaviors around a crack tip and the discontinuities of transverse displacement and bending rotations across the crack. The present solutions monotonically converge to the exact frequencies as upper bounds when the number of admissible functions increases. The validity and accuracy of the present solutions are confirmed through comprehensive convergence studies and comparison with the published results based on the classical thin plate theory. The proposed approach is further employed to investigate the effects of the length, location, and orientation of crack on frequencies and nodal patterns of simply supported and cantilevered cracked rectangular plates. The results shown are the first ones available in the published literature.     

Vibration analysis of a partially treated multi-layer beam with magnetorheological fluid

Semi-active vibration control based on magnetorheological (MR) materials offers excellent potential for high bandwidth control through rapid variations in the rheological properties of the fluid under varying magnetic field. Such fluids may be conveniently applied to partial or more critical components of a large structure to realize more efficient and compact vibration control mechanism with variable damping. This study investigates the properties and vibration responses of a partially treated multi-layer MR fluid beam. The governing equations of a partially treated multi-layered MR beam are formulated using finite element method and Ritz formulation. The validity of the proposed finite element formulations is demonstrated by comparing the results with those obtained from the Ritz formulation and the experimental measurements. The properties of different configurations of a partially treated MR-fluid beam are evaluated to investigate the influences of the location and length of the MR-fluid for different boundary conditions. The properties in terms of natural frequencies and loss factors corresponding to various modes are evaluated under different magnetic field intensities and compared with those of the fully treated beams. The effect of location of the fluid treatment on deflection mode shapes is also investigated. The forced vibration responses of the various configurations of partially treated MR sandwich beam are also evaluated under harmonic force excitations. The results suggest that the natural frequencies and transverse displacement response of the partially treated MR beams are strongly influenced not only by the intensity of the applied magnetic field, but also by the location and the length of the fluid pocket. The application of partial treatment could also alter the deflection pattern of the beam, particularly the location of the peak deflection.     

Analysis of the flow-induced vibrations of viscoelastically supported rectangular plates

The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model for the flow-induced vibration of viscoelastically supported rectangular plates. In particular, the influence of the dynamic mechanical properties of the elements supporting the plate was investigated. The case of a homogeneous rectangular plate supported along all four edges by a complex viscoelastic element was treated. The Rayleigh-Ritz method was used applying beam functions as the trial functions. This approach ensured a fast convergence rate, which is advantageous for vibration analysis of high order modes. The flow-induced vibration of the plate was calculated using the Corcos model for the surface pressure loading. The results suggest that there is an optimal support stiffness that minimizes the flow-induced vibration response of the plate.     

Exact solutions for free vibration of shear-type structures with arbitrary distribution of mass or stiffness.

In this paper, shear-type structures such as frame buildings, etc., are treated as nonuniform shear beams (one-dimensional systems) in free-vibration analysis. The expression for describing the distribution of shear stiffness of a shear beam is arbitrary, and the distribution of mass is expressed as a functional relation with the distribution of shear stiffness, and vice versa. Using appropriate functional transformation, the governing differential equations for free vibration of nonuniform shear beams are reduced to Bessel's equations or ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients for several functional relations. Thus, classes of exact solutions for free vibrations of the shear beam with arbitrary distribution of stiffness or mass are obtained. The effect of taper on natural frequencies of nonuniform beams is investigated. Numerical examples show that the calculated natural frequencies and mode shapes of shear-type structures are in good agreement with the field measured data and those determined by the finite-element method and Ritz method.     

Free vibration of rectangular nanoplates using Rayleigh–Ritz method

Vibration analysis of isotropic rectangular nanoplates based on the classical plate theory in conjunction with Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is considered. Nanoplates are one of the structural units that are used in nanoscale applications. In this study, Rayleigh–Ritz method with algebraic polynomial displacement function is used to solve the vibration problem of isotropic rectangular nanoplates subjected to different boundary conditions. The advantage of the method is that one can easily handle the specified boundary conditions at the edges. A comparison of the results with those available in the literature has been made. The proposed method is also validated by convergence studies. Frequency parameters are given for different nonlocality parameters, length of nanoplates and boundary conditions. The study highlights that nonlocality effects increase with the increase in mode number and the influence of nonlocal effects becomes increasingly pronounced for higher order vibration modes. Three-dimensional mode shapes for the specified nanoplates have also been presented.     

Study on plate silencer with general boundary conditions

A plate silencer consists of an expansion chamber with two side-branch rigid cavities covered by plates. Previous studies showed that, in a duct, the introduction of simply supported or clamped plates into an air conveying system could achieve broadband quieting from low to medium frequencies. In this study, analytical formulation is extended to the plate silencer with general boundary conditions. A set of static beam functions, which are a combination of sine series and third-order polynomial, is employed as the trial functions of the plate vibration velocity. Green?s function and Kirchhoff–Helmholtz integral are used to solve the sound radiation in the duct and the cavity, and then the vibration velocity of the plate is obtained. Having obtained the vibration velocity, the pressure perturbations induced by the plate oscillation and the transmission loss are found. Optimization is carried out in order to obtain the widest stopband. The transmission loss calculated by the analytical method agrees closely with the result of the finite element method simulation. Further studies with regard to the plate under several different classical boundary conditions based on the validated model show that a clamped-free plate silencer has the worst stopband. Attempts to release the boundary restriction of the plate are also made to study its effect on sound reflection. Results show that a softer end for a clamped–clamped plate silencer helps increase the optimal bandwidth, while the same treatment for simply supported plate silencer will result in performance degradation.     

Dynamic characterization of beam type structures: Analytical, numerical and experimental applications

A general algorithm for the free vibration analysis of stepped and tapered beam type structures with multiple elastic supports is developed in this work. The analytical formulation is based on the Ritz method and on the use of orthogonal polynomials within the framework of the first order shear deformation beam theory. To verify the validity and convergence of the general algorithm several numerical examples are analyzed. A further example concerned with the determination of the dynamical properties of a bell tower is also presented and compared with the finite element method and experimental results.     

Vibration of a rectangular plate with a central power-law profiled groove by the Rayleigh–Ritz method

The prediction of natural frequencies of rectangular plates where a profiled indentation is present is made using a Rayleigh–Ritz variational energy method. Panels with holes are often found for access cables and access gaps, and it is shown that the application of damping to the profile leads to a more efficient method of reducing vibration than covering a whole rectangular plate, which is advantageous where weight saving is necessary.     

Structural–acoustic model of a rectangular plate–cavity system with an attached distributed mass and internal sound source: Theory and experiment

In this paper three approaches are combined to develop a structural–acoustic model of a rectangular plate–cavity system with an attached distributed mass and internal sound source. The first approach results from a recently presented analysis based on the Rayleigh–Ritz method and is used to circumvent the difficulties in obtaining the natural frequencies and mode shapes of a plate with an attached, distributed mass. Furthermore, different plate boundary conditions can be accommodated. The resulting mode shapes are defined as continuous functions; this is advantageous as they can be directly used in the second approach, i.e., the classic modal-interaction approach in order to obtain the coupled equations of the system. Finally, in the third approach a group of point sources emitting a pressure pulse in the time domain is used to model an internal sound source. For the validation of the developed model an experiment was conducted in two configurations using a simply supported aluminium plate and a clamped plate coupled with a plexiglas box containing a loudspeaker. Good agreement was found between the analytical and experimental data.     

Natural frequencies and vibration modes of laminated composite plates reinforced with arbitrary curvilinear fiber shape paths

The development of tow-placement technology has made it possible to control fiber tows individually and place fibers in curvilinear distinct paths in each layer of a laminated plate. This paper presents an analytical method for determining natural frequencies and vibration modes of laminated plates having such curvilinear reinforcing fibers. Spline functions are employed to represent arbitrarily shaped fibers, and Ritz solutions are used to derive frequency equations using series type shape functions. The strain energy is evaluated by numerical integration involving the fiber orientation angle, and is calculated using the derivative of the spline function in minute intervals. The results show that the natural frequencies obtained by the present method agree well with results from finite element analyses. The vibration mode shape contour plots of the plates are seen to reflect clear influences of the fiber shapes.