NATURAL FREQUENCIES OF ORTHOTROPIC RECTANGULAR-PLATES OBTAINED BY ITERATIVE REDUCTION OF THE PARTIAL-DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION

Natural frequencies of orthotropic rectangular plates are obtained by successive reduction of the plate partial differential equation and by solving the resulting ordinary differential equation exactly. The red uction of the partial differential equation is carried out by assuming an approximate solution satisfying the boundary conditions along one direction and employing a Galerkin averaging technique known as the Ka ntorovich method. The resulting ordinary differential equation along t he other direction is solved exactly, which provides the natural frequ encies of the plate. Natural frequencies of the orthotropic rectangula r plates with various boundary conditions are obtained by using this a pproach, and presented along with the discussion of the convergence an d accuracy of the results. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited