OPTIMAL LOCATIONS OF POINT SUPPORTS IN PLATES FOR MAXIMUM FUNDAMENTAL-FREQUENCY

This paper investigates the optimal locations of rigid point supports to maximize the fundamental frequency of free vibration of plates. The computational method uses the Rayleigh-Ritz method for the vibration analysis and the simplex method of Nelder and Mead for the optimizatio n search of support locations. Optimal results have been obtained for various common shapes of plates with a few point supports. The results show that the frequency of the plate is sensitive to the locations of the point supports. Moreover, these new optimal results provide usefu l information to designers seeking to exploit the position of point su pports in their plate designs. It has been found that multiple solutio ns are a common feature of this plate optimization problem.