Free vibration and buckling analysis of clamped skew sandwich plates by the Galerkin method

Abstract

Galerkin's variational method has been used in the past by several investigators [1–3] to solve bending problems of clamped skew plates. In this paper the suitability of the Galerkin method for solution of problems of buckling under the action of in-plane forces and of free vibration of skew plates is studied. The method is first applied to investigate the problems for clamped rectangular sandwich plates. After the validity of the method has been established, the method is then extended to analyze similar problems for clamped skew sandwich plates. The governing differential equations for the skew sandwich plates are obtained by transforming the corresponding differential equations in Cartesian coordinates into skew co-ordinates. The parameters considered herein for the buckling and free vibration behaviour of the skew sandwich plates are the aspect ratio of the plate, Poisson's ratio, skew angle and various shearing stiffnesses of the core. Simplicity and quick convergence is the advantage of the method in comparison with other much more laborious numerical methods requiring extensive computer facilities.