Free vibration analysis of curvilinear quadrilateral plates by the differential quadrature method

A methodology for applying the differential quadrature (DQ) method to the f ree vibration analysis of arbitrary quadrilateral plates is developed. In o ur approach, the irregular physical domain is transformed into a rectangula r domain in the computational space. The governing equation and the boundar y conditions are also transformed into relevant forms in the computational space. Then all the computations are based on the computational domain. As compared to the approach proposed by C. W. Bert and M. Malik (Int. J. Mech. Sci. 38, 589 (1996)), the present approach requires much less computationa l effort and virtual storage. In addition, the present work uses a simple a nd convenient way to implement clamped and simply supported boundary condit ions. An exact mapping technique is used to perform the coordinate transfor mation in this study. Some numerical examples are provided to show the comp utational efficiency of the present scheme. (C) 2000 Academic Press.