DIRECT IDENTIFICATION OF ELASTIC-CONSTANTS OF ANISOTROPIC PLATES BY MODAL-ANALYSIS - THEORETICAL AND NUMERICAL ASPECTS

A direct method of determining the six flexural stiffnesses of thin an isotropic plates is presented in this paper. This technique is based o n a relevant processing of natural frequencies and mode shapes of free -free vibrating plates. The unknown plate rigidities are the solution of an overdetermined linear system, the equations of which are obtaine d with a set of relevant weighting functions associated with different natural modes of vibration. Numerical simulations indicate the accura cy and the sensitivity of this identification method. (C) 1996 Academi c Press Limited