Axisymmetric vibrations of polar orthotropic mindlin annular plates of variable thickness

Abstract

Analysis and numerical results are presented for the axisymmetric vibrations of polar orthotropic annular plates with linear variation in thickness, according to Mindlin's shear theory of plates. A chebyshev collocation technique has been employed to obtain the frequency equations for the transverse motion of such plates, for three different boundary conditions. Frequencies, mode shapes and moments for the first three modes of vibration have been computed for different plate parameters. A comparison of frequencies with the corresponding values obtained by classical plate theory leads to some interesting conclusions.