Application of exponential functions in weighted residuals method in structural mechanics. Part II: static and vibration analysis of rectangular plate

Abstract

The paper is continuation of our efforts on application of the properly constructed sets of exponential functions as the trial (basic) functions in weighted residuals method, WRM, on example of classical tasks of structural mechanics. The purpose of this paper is justification of new method’s efficiency as opposed to getting new results. So, static deformation and free vibration of isotropic thin – walled plate are considered here. Another peculiarity of paper is choice of weight (test) functions, where three options are investigated: it is the same as trial one (Galerkin method); it is taken as results of application of differential operator to trial function (least square method); it equals to the second derivative of trial function with respect to both x and y coordinate (moment method). Solution is considered as product of two independent sets of functions with respect to x or y coordinates. Each set is the combination of five consequent exponential functions, where coefficient at first function is equal to one, and four other coefficients are to satisfy two boundary conditions at each opposite boundary. The only arbitrary value in this method is the scaling factor at exponents, the reasonable range of which was carefully investigated and was shown to have a negligible impact on results.
 Static deformation was investigated on example of simple supported plate when outer loading is either symmetrical and concentrated near the center or is shifted to any corner point. It was demonstrated that results converge to correct solution much quickly than in classical Navier method, while moment method seems to be a best choice. Then method was applied to free vibration analysis, and again the accuracy of results on frequencies and mode shape were excellent even at small number of terms. At last the vibration of relatively complicated case of clamped – clamped plate was analyzed and very encouraged results as to efficiency and accuracy were achieved.

Method of matched sections in application to thin-walled and Mindlin rectangular plates

“…The minimization of functional gives the required system of equations. Both methods are very widely used in mathematical physics [8], in general, and are popular in plate analysis up to now [6,9,10,11], in particular.…”