Free vibration analysis of thin arbitrarily laminated anisotropic plates using boundary-continuous displacement Fourier approach

A boundary continuous displacement based Fourier series solution to the bou ndary-value problem of free vibration of an arbitrarily laminated thin rect angular plate is presented. This powerful approach is employed to solve a s ystem of three highly Coupled partial differential equations arising from t he Kirchhoff hypothesis as applied to an anisotropic laminate, with the SS2 -type simply supported boundary conditions prescribed at all four edges. Th e accuracy of the computed eigenvalues (natural frequencies) is ascertained by studying the convergence characteristics of the lowest seven natural fr equencies, and also by comparison with the computed degenerate FEM (finite element methods) results. Other important numerical results presented inclu de variation of the response quantities of interest with geometric and mate rial parameters, such as fiber orientation angle and longitudinal-to-transv erse modulus ratio. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.