Vibration of Plates Subject to Arbitrary In-Plane Loads—A Perturbation Approach

Abstract

Perturbation theory is used to obtain the natural frequencies and mode shapes of lateral vibration of rectangular plates under arbitrary in-plane loading in terms of a power series in a loading parameter, commencing from known approximate or “exact” solutions of the same plate under no in-plane loading. The range of loading over which the solution is applicable is shown to be extendible to practically any limit by the introduction of a stepwise perturbation technique. Numerical results demonstrating the applicability and accuracy of the analysis are presented for plates subject to uniform, linear, and parabolic in-plane stress distributions. Simple approximate frequency expressions are also given.