TRANSVERSE VIBRATION OF TRIANGULAR PLATES WITH VARIABLE THICKNESS

Transverse vibration of a triangular plate with thickness varying as a linear function of co-ordinates in the plane of the plate has been so lved by working out several approximations in the Rayleigh-Ritz method . The basis functions are chosen so that the essential boundary condit ions are satisfied. Three parameters control the three types of bounda ry conditions at the edges, two parameters control the thickness varia tion and two parameters control the shape of the plate. A general proc edure has been laid down to compute the frequencies and the associated mode shapes for any set of these parameters. Convergence has been ens ured by working out a sufficiently large number of approximations so t hat at least the first three frequencies converge to three significant digits. The results are tabulated for various values of the parameter s and comparisons have been made with known results in special cases. Three-dimensional plots of the mode shapes have also been given in som e cases. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited