Vibration of Triangular Cantilever Plates by the Ritz Method

Abstract

Abstract Using the method published by Ritz in 1909, natural frequencies and corresponding node lines have been determined for two symmetric and two antisymmetric modes of vibration of isosceles triangular plates clamped at the base and having length-to-base ratios of 1, 2, 4, and 7 and for the two lowest modes of right triangular plates clamped along one leg and having ratios of the length of the free leg to that of the clamped one of 2, 4, and 7. A nonorthogonal co-ordinate system was used which gave constant limits of integration over the area of the triangle. The co-ordinate transformation made it necessary to modify the functions used by Ritz in approximating deflections and to consider cross products in the integration. The integration was done numerically, using tables compiled by Young and Felgar in 1949. To check the accuracy of results, a solution was obtained to the problem of a vibrating cantilever beam of uniform depth and triangular plan view. The results obtained were found to be consistent with those obtained for the plates by using an eight-term series to approximate the deflections of the symmetric plates (isosceles triangles) and a six-term series to approximate the deflections of the unsymmetric plates (right triangles).