A new Fourier series method and displacement function for in-plane vibration and power flow characteristics analysis of isotropic rectangular plates

Abstract

The generation of in-plane vibration in plates is an important issue and frequently occurs due to the presence of excitations in the ship’s hull due to turbulent fluid flows, turbulent airflow excitation on aerospace structures, gear system subjected to axial excitation, assemblies housing piezoelectric crystals and sandwiched plates, and so on. The present analysis aims to establish a universal and numerically efficient method for determination of in-plane vibration characteristics of isotropic rectangular plates both for conventional and general boundary conditions. The new in-plane Fourier series and displacement function of the plate have been developed using beam displacement functions in x and y directions, respectively, under in-plane condition. A modified Fourier series assumption for the in-plane beam displacement has been utilised and further developed as plate displacement function. The computational efficiency of the present method is compared in terms of convergence of natural frequency parameter, speed of execution and manual convenience to reduce human errors with the frequently used Fourier series method by various researchers. Rayleigh–Ritz procedure has been applied to determine the in-plane natural frequencies. The mode shapes for few conventional and generally varying boundary conditions have been presented and analysed. The dynamic response has been obtained and analysed in terms of the in-plane mobility and power flow characteristics of the plate under varying boundary conditions. The validity of results obtained by the current method has shown excellent accuracy and faster convergence with the existing results. The present results can provide a benchmark to analyse the dynamic in-plane response of plate systems being used for built-up structures in real engineering applications.