A COMPARATIVE-STUDY OF VIBRATING LOADED PLATES BETWEEN THE RAYLEIGH-RITZ AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

Natural frequencies of rectangular plates carrying a concentrated mass are obtained by employing a set of trigonometric beam functions in th e Rayleigh-Ritz method. Two models of the energy method using one-term and 100-term model are used in the study. Results obtained from the a nalytical study using the energy method are compared with those measur ed experimentally. It is found that the 100-term analytical model can generally predict well the experimental frequencies of a plate carryin g an arbitrarily placed concentrated mass, whereas the one-term analyt ical model is only good for estimating the first-mode frequency of a p late carrying a centrally placed mass. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited .