Scattering by cavities of arbitrary shape in an infinite plate and associated vibration problems

This paper presents a solution for the displacement of a uniform elastic thin plate with an arbitrary cavity, modelled using the biharmonic plate equation. The problem is formulated as a system of boundary integral equations by factorizing the biharmonic equation, with the unknown boundary values expanded in terms of a Fourier series. At the edge of the cavity we consider free-edge, simply-supported and clamped boundary conditions. Methods to suppress ill-conditioning which occurs at certain frequencies are discussed, and the combined boundary integral equation method is implemented to control this problem. A connection is made between the problem of an infinite plate with an arbitrary cavity and the vibration problem of an arbitrarily shaped finite plate, using the jump discontinuity present in single-layer distributions at the boundary. The first few frequencies and modes of displacement are computed for circular and elliptic cavities, which provide a check on our numerics, and results for the displacement of an infinite plate are given for four specific cavity geometries and various boundary conditions.