VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF RECTANGULAR ISOTROPIC THICK PLATES USING MINDLIN PLATE CHARACTERISTIC FUNCTIONS

An iterative Kantorovich method is presented for the vibration analysis of rectangular isotropic thick plates. Mindlin plate characteristic functions are derived in general forms by the Kantorovich method initially starting with Timoshenko beam functions consistent with the boundary conditions of the plate. Through numerical calculations of natural pairs and dynamic responses of appropriate models, it has been confirmed that the method presented is superior to the Rayleigh-Ritz analysis or the FEM analysis in accuracy and computational efficiency. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited