The vibration and post-buckling of geometrically imperfect,simply supported,rectangular plates under uni-axial loading,part I: Theoretical approach

The work described in this paper constitutes the theoretical part of a theoretical and experimental study of the post-buckling and vibration of simply supported rectangular plates having slight initial curvature (geometrical imperfection) and subject to uni-axially applied, in-plane, compressive loads. The experimental part, and the comparison with theoretical predictions, is given in a second paper. The Rayleigh-Ritz approach, with a deflection function formulation for both the in- and out-of-plane behaviour of the plates, is used since this permits the convenient modelling of various types of in-plane boundary conditions, including those encountered in the experimental study. A concept of connection coefficients, introduced to reduce the computational effort involved, is described. In order to illustrate the applicability of the theoretical approach, a number of square plates having various sets of in-plane boundary conditions and degrees of initial imperfection are treated. Graphical results are presented showing the variation of the lateral central deflection and the fundamental natural frequency of vibration with applied in-plate loads varying from zero to several times the lowest critical buckling load. Where possible, comparison is made with values available in the literature and excellent agreement is achieved. The results presented appear to suggest that an approximately linear relationship exists between a load-frequency parameter and the central deflection of the plates considered, for a substantial in-plane loading range.     

Large amplitude flexural vibration of eccentrically stiffened plates

The large amplitude free flexural vibrations of thin, orthotropic, eccentrically and lightly stiffened elastic rectangular plates are investigated. Clamped boundary conditions with movable in-plane edge conditions are assumed. A simple modal form of one-term transverse displacement is used and in-plane displacements are made to satisfy the in-plane equilibrium equations. By using Lagrange's equation, the modal equations for the nonlinear free vibration of stiffened plates are obtained for the cases when the stiffeners are assumed to be smeared out over the entire surface of the plate, and when the stiffeners are located at finite intervals. Numerical results are obtained for various possibilities of stiffening and for different aspect ratios of the plate. By particularizing the problem to different known cases, the results obtained here are compared with available analytical and experimental results, and the agreement is good.     

On the durable critic load in creep buckling of viscoelastic laminated plates and circular cylindrical shells

Based on the first order shear deformation theory and classic buckling theory, the paper investigates the creep buckling behavior of viscoelastic laminated plates and laminated circular cylindrical shells. The analysis and elaboration of both instantaneous elastic critic load and durable critic load are emphasized. The buckling load in phase domain is obtained from governing equations by applying Laplace transform, and the instantaneous elastic critic load and durable critic load are determined according to the extreme value theorem for inverse Laplace transform. It is shown that viscoelastic approach and quasi-elastic approach yield identical solutions for these two types of critic load respectively. A transverse disturbance model is developed to give the same mechanics significance of durable critic load as that of elastic critic load. Two types of critic loads of boron/epoxy composite laminated plates and circular cylindrical shells are discussed in detail individually, and the influencing factors to induce creep buckling are revealed by examining the viscoelasticity incorporated in transverse shear deformation and in-plane flexibility.     

Vibration and buckling of rectangular plates under in-plane hydrostatic loading

Numerical solutions are presented for the fundamental natural frequency and mode shape of a rectangular plate loaded by in-plane hydrostatic forces for a wide variety of aspect ratios, boundary conditions, and load magnitudes. All six possible combinations of simply supported and clamped edges are considered. The limiting conditions of unloaded vibration and buckling are discussed in detail, with emphasis on the preferred mode shape. Design curves and approximate formulae are presented which provide a simple means of determining the fundamental frequency parameter.     

Application of a version of the Rayleigh technique to problems of bars,beams, columns,membranes, and plates

A review is presented, together with some new material, of the application of a little known version of the Rayleigh technique to a variety of problems in solid and structural mechanics. This method was originally applied by Rayleigh in 1894 to the one-dimensional problem of determining the fundamental frequency of a stretched string undergoing small-amplitude vibrations. The essence of the method is that instead of using a specific trial function with an undetermined coefficient for the deflection as in the ordinary Rayleigh method, here one uses a function containing a power-law term with an undetermined exponent. Application of the usual variational procedure for the quantity of interest (such as the buckling load, fundamental frequency, or deflection) results in a dimensionless quantity which is a function only of the undetermined exponent. Finally, the “best” exponent is the one which minimizes the Lagrangian and thus the buckling load, natural frequency, or reciprocal of deflection. In the past five years, the non-integer exponent idea has been applied to elastic torsion, buckling of columns and plates, vibration of bars, beams, columns, membranes, and plates, and deflection of beams and plates. Also, it has been incorporated into the finite element method. All of these applications are discussed and some additional original work of the present investigator is presented.     

Vibration of plates with straight-line,clamped and free edges

This paper deals with vibration problems of thin plates having straight-line, mutually perpendicular, clamped and free edges and subjected to a load consisting of a set of transverse, arbitrarily located random forces. It is assumed that the number of edges of a plate forming recurring figures is optional but each of these edges is either clamped or free along its entire length. The procedure for solving the boundary problem based upon the R-functions method and for estimation of transverse displacements based upon the correlation analysis is presented. Numerical calculations are carried out for two example plates.     

Influence of boundary stress singularities on the vibration of clamped and simply-supported sectorial plates with arbitrary radial edge conditions

This paper extends previous studies made for sectorial plates having re-entrant (i.e., interior) corners causing stress singularities, to provide accurate frequencies when the circular edge is either clamped or simply-supported. An extensive review of the literature is also given herein spanning nearly the past two decades explaining the free vibration characteristics of sectorial plates. In this work, the classical Ritz method is employed with two sets of admissible functions assumed for the transverse vibratory displacements. These sets include: (1) mathematically complete algebraic-trigonometric polynomials which guarantee convergence to exact frequencies as sufficient terms are retained and (2) corner functions which account for the bending moment singularities at the re-entrant vertex corner of the radial edges having arbitrary edge conditions. Extensive convergence studies summarized herein confirm that the corner functions substantially enhance the convergence and accuracy of non-dimensional frequencies for sectorial plates having either a clamped or hinged circumferential edge and various combinations of clamped, hinged, and free conditions on the radial edges. Accurate (to at least four significant figure) frequencies and normalized contours of the transverse vibratory displacement are presented for the spectra of sector angles [90°, 180° (semi-circular), 270°, 300°, 330°, 350°, 355°, 360° (complete circular)] causing a re-entrant vertex corner of the radial edges. For sector angles of 360°, a clamped-clamped, clamped-hinged, clamped-free, hinged-free or free-free radial crack ensues. One general observation is the substantial reduction in the first six frequencies as the sector angle increases for all plates, except in the first two modes of plates having free-free radial edges.     

DYNAMIC STABILITY OF CURVED PANELS WITH CUTOUTS

The parametric instability behaviour of curved panels with cutouts subjected to in-plane static and periodic compressive edge loadings are studied using finite element analysis. The first order shear deformation theory is used to model the curved panels, considering the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia. The theory used is the extension of dynamic, shear deformable theory according to Sanders' first approximation for doubly curved shells, which can be reduced to Love's and Donnell's theories by means of tracers. The effects of static and dynamic load factors, geometry, boundary conditions and the cutout parameters on the principal instability regions of curved panels with cutouts are studied in detail using Bolotin's method. Quantitative results are presented to show the effects of shell geometry and load parameters on the stability boundaries. Results for plates are also presented as special cases and are compared with those available in the literature.     

Dynamic instability of composite plates subjected to non-uniform in-plane loads

In this paper, the dynamic instability of a shear deformable composite plate subjected to periodic non-uniform in-plane loading is studied for four sets of boundary conditions. The static component and the dynamic component of the applied periodic in-plane loading are assumed to vary according to either parabolic or linear distributions. Initially, the plate membrane problem is solved using the Ritz method to evaluate the plate in-plane stress distributions within the prebuckling range due to the applied non-uniform in-plane edge loading. Subsequently using the evaluated stress distribution within the plate, the equations governing the plate instability boundaries are formulated via Hamilton's variational principle. Employing Galerkin's method, these partial differential equations are reduced into a set of ordinary differential equations (Mathieu type of equations) describing the plate dynamic instability behaviour. Following Bolotin's method, the instability regions are determined from the boundaries of instability, which represents the periodic solution of the differential equations with period T and 2T to the Mathieu equations. The instability regions are determined for uniform, linear and parabolic dynamic in-plane loads using first-order and second-order approximations. Numerical results are also presented to bring out the effects of span to thickness ratio, shear deformation, aspect ratio, boundary conditions and static load factor on the instability regions.     

Vibration of simply supported-clamped skew plates at large amplitudest

The large amplitude, free, flexural vibration of orthotropic skew plates simply supported along two opposite edges and clamped along the other two are investigated on the basis of an assumed mode shape. The relationship between the amplitude and period is studied for both isotropic and orthotropic skew plates for various aspect ratios and skew angles under two in-plane edge conditions. It is found that the modal equation reduces to the Dufling type equation from which the period of non-linear vibration is found to decrease with increasing amplitude, exhibiting hardening type of non-linearity. The validity of the Berger approximation is investigated for the problem under consideration and this approximation is shown to give reasonably good results.     

Bending,vibration and buckling of simply supported thick multilayered orthotropic plates: An evaluation of a new displacement model

Based upon a piecewise linear displacement field which allows the contact conditions for the displacements and the transverse shearing stresses at the interfaces to be satisfied simultaneously, the non-linear (in the von Kármán sense) equations of motion for thick multilayered orthotropic plates are developed. Successively, the equations are specified to the linear boundary value problem of the bending and to the linear eigenvalue problems of the undamped vibration and buckling of rectangular plates. In order to assess the accuracy of the proposed theory, the sample problem of the bending, free undamped vibration and buckling of a three-layered, symmetric cross-ply, square plate simply supported on all edges is investigated. For purposes of comparison, numerical results from the exact elasticity theory, the classical lamination (Kirchhoff) theory and the shear deformation theory (Timoshenko and Mindlin) with three different values of the shear correction factor are also presented. It is found that the proposed approach is very efficient in predicting the global responses (deflection, natural frequencies and buckling loads) of thick multilayered plates and models effects, such as the distortion of the deformed normals, not attainable from the classical lamination theory, as well as the shear deformation theory.     

Vibrations of a polygonal plate having orthogonal straight edges by an extended rayleigh-ritz method

An extended Rayleigh-Ritz method is presented for solving vibration problems of a polygonal plate having orthogonal straight edges. The polygonal plate is considered as an assemblage of several rectangular plates. For each element rectangular plate, the transverse displacement is approximated by interpolation functions corresponding to unknown displacements and slopes at the discrete points which are chosen along the edges, and series of trial functions which satisfy homogeneous artificial boundary conditions. By minimizing the energy functional corresponding to the assumed displacement function, the dynamic stiffness matrix of the element rectangular plate, which is similar to that obtained in the finite element method, is derived. The dynamic stiffness matrix of the whole system is obtained by summing up those of the element rectangular plates. Numerical results are presented for the natural frequencies and mode shapes of cantilever L-shaped and T-shaped plates.     

Vibrations of rectangular plates with elastically restrained edges

The Rayleigh-Ritz method is used to determined natural frequencies in transverse vibration of rectangular plates with elastically restrained edges. By treating an elastically restrained edge as intermediate between an appropriate pair of classical boundary conditions and using the corresponding vibration mode shapes of beams with classical boundary conditions as assumed functions, a relatively small number of functions is required; consequently only a modest quantity of computation is necessary. The good accuracy of the method is demonstrated by solving test problems. The method can be applied to a wide range of elastic restraint conditions, any aspect ratio and for higher modes in addition to the fundamental. The usefulness and accuracy of existing simplified approaches to the problem are assessed. The effect of in-plane forces on the natural frequencies and the determination of critical loads for plates with these restraint conditions are considered also.     

Thermodynamical Bending of FGM Sandwich Plates Resting on Pasternak's Elastic Foundations

The analysis of thermoelastic deformations of a simply supported functionally graded material (FGM) sandwich plates subjected to a time harmonic sinusoidal temperature field on the top surface and varying through-the-thickness is illustrated in this paper. The FGM sandwich plates are assumed to be made of three layers and resting on Pasternak's elastic foundations. The volume fractions of the constituents of the upper and lower layers and, hence, the effective material properties of them are assumed to vary in the thickness direction only whereas the core layer is still homogeneous. When in-plane sinusoidal variations of the displacements and the temperature that identically satisfy the boundary conditions at the edges, the governing equations of motion are solved analytically by using various shear deformation theories as well as the classical one. The influences of the time parameter, power law index, temperature exponent, top-to-bottom surface temperature ratio, side-to-thickness ratio and the foundation parameters on the dynamic bending are investigated.     

Dynamic responses of Reissner–Mindlin plates with free edges resting on tensionless elastic foundations

Dynamic response analysis is presented for a Reissner–Mindlin plate with four free edges resting on a tensionless elastic foundation of the Winkler-type and Pasternak-type. The mechanical loads consist of transverse partially distributed impulsive loads and in-plane static edge loads while the temperature field is assumed to exhibit a linear variation through the thickness of the plate. The material properties are assumed to be independent of temperature. The two cases of initially compressed plates and of initially heated plates are considered. The formulations are based on Reissner–Mindlin first-order shear deformation plate theory and include the plate–foundation interaction and thermal effects. A set of admissible functions is developed for the dynamic response analysis of moderately thick plates with four free edges. The Galerkin method, the Gauss–Legendre quadrature procedure and the Runge–Kutta technique are employed in conjunction with this set of admissible functions to determine the deflection-time and bending moment–time curves, as well as shape mode curves. An iterative scheme is developed to obtain numerical results without using any assumption on the shape of the contact region. The numerical illustrations concern moderately thick plates with four free edges resting on tensionless elastic foundations of the Winkler-type and Pasternak-type, from which results for conventional elastic foundations are obtained as comparators. The results confirm that the plate will have stronger dynamic behavior than its counterpart when it is supported by a tensionless elastic foundation.     

EXACT BUCKLING AND VIBRATION SOLUTIONS FOR STEPPED RECTANGULAR PLATES

This paper is concerned with the determination of exact buckling loads and vibration frequencies of multi-stepped rectangular plates based on the classical thin (Kirchhoff) plate theory. The plate is assumed to have two opposite edges simply supported while the other two edges can take any combination of free, simply supported and clamped conditions. The proposed analytical method for solution involves the Levy method and the state-space technique. By using this analytical method, exact buckling and vibration solutions are obtained for rectangular plates having one- and two-step thickness variations. These exact solutions are extremely useful as benchmark values for researchers developing numerical techniques and software for analyzing non-uniform thickness plates.     

Free vibration of two elastically coupled rectangular plates with uniform elastic boundary restraints

An analytical method is derived for determining the vibrations of two plates which are generally supported along the boundary edges, and elastically coupled together at an arbitrary angle. The interactions of all four wave groups (bending waves, out-of-plane shearing waves, in-plane longitudinal waves, and in-plane shearing waves) have been taken into account at the junction via four types of coupling springs of arbitrary stiffnesses. Each of the transverse and in-plane displacement functions is expressed as the superposition of a two-dimensional (2-D) Fourier cosine series and several supplementary functions which are introduced to ensure and improve the convergence of the series representation by removing the discontinuities that the original displacement and its derivatives will potentially exhibit at the edges when they are periodically expanded onto the entire x-y plane as mathematically implied by a 2-D Fourier series. The unknown expansions coefficients are calculated using the Rayleigh-Ritz procedure which is actually equivalent to solving the governing equation and the boundary and coupling conditions directly when the assumed solutions are sufficiently smooth over the solution domains. Numerical examples are presented for several different coupling configurations. A good comparison is observed between the current results and the FEA models. Although this study is specifically focused on the coupling of two plates, the proposed method can be directly extended to structures consisting of any number of plates.     

Vibrations of post-buckled rods: The singular inextensible limit

The small-amplitude in-plane vibrations of an elastic rod clamped at both extremities are studied. The rod is modeled as an extensible, shearable, planar Kirchhoff elastic rod under large displacements and rotations, and the vibration frequencies are computed both analytically and numerically as a function of the loading. Of particular interest is the variation of mode frequencies as the load is increased through the buckling threshold. While for some modes there are no qualitative changes in the mode frequencies, other frequencies experience rapid variations after the buckling threshold, the thinner the rod, the more abrupt the variations. Eventually, a mismatch for half of the frequencies at buckling arises between the zero thickness limit of the extensible model and the inextensible model.     

The flexural vibration of welded rectangular plates

A theoretical and experimental study of the effect of weld runs on the flexural vibrational characteristics of the common structural element, the rectangular plate, is described. A finite difference technique is utilized for the determination of the in-plane residual stress pattern due to the weld(s) and the Rayleigh-Ritz method, with beam characteristic functions, is used for the out-of-plane vibration analysis. The theoretical approach presented is applicable to rectangular plates of any practical aspect ratio, having any combination of out-of-plane boundary conditions for which beam functions may reasonably be used and subject to one or more weld runs parallel to any edge. Theoretical and experimental results for a number of specific plates are presented, demonstrating the effects of welding on the plate vibration and the capability and accuracy of the analytical approach in predicting these effects. Included is a study of the effect of using the full residual stress pattern as derived from the finite difference analysis, the effect of neglecting certain stress components and the effect of using simplified stress patterns developed primarily for the stress and buckling analysis of long plates.