Forced vibrations of rectangular plates subjected to harmonic loading distributed over a rectangular subdomain

Quite frequently naval and ocean structural designers confront the problem of a plate or slab which supports a motor or engine which excites, dynamica lly, the structural element. Very often the excitation is treated as a conc entrated force but, obviously, it acts over a finite area. The present stud y deals with the title problem for several combinations of boundary conditi ons by means of a variational approach and also using the finite element me thod. Dynamic displacement and bending moment amplitudes are determined. (C ) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.