Application of Maple V to the nonlinear vibration analysis of circular plate with variable thickness

This paper is concerned with the application of Maple V to the nonlinear vi bration problems of circular plates with variable thickness. In this paper, the nonlinear equations of plates of variable thickness to the dynamic cas e can be solved by using the computer algebra systems method. Details of so lution expressions and numerical results are given in computer algebra syst ems forms, for two kinds of boundary conditions, which are the clamped edge and the supported edge. The numerical results show that the solutions of t he paper contain other cases when the plates are of uniform thickness. The effect of various thickness parameters has been investigated in detail. In addition, a Runge-Kutta method is used to solve the free vibration and the maximum deflection response to a uniformly distributed step load of plates with variable thickness. It is shown that the adoption of variable thicknes s plate would be useful in engineering design. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Lt d. All rights reserved.