LAUSR

The theoretical analysis of thick plate vibration behavior has been investigated in the literature, but most of the studies were focused on flexural dynamic characteristics and lack experimental verification. In this study, the analytical solutions based on the superposition method for both the flexural and extensional vibrations are presented to obtain resonant frequencies and associated mode shapes for a transversely isotropic thick rectangular plate. The displacement equilibrium equations and boundary conditions of the modified first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) are derived by utilizing Hamilton’s principle and the variation method. To verify the validity of the theoretical model, the finite-element method (FEM) and impact experiment results for thick plates are employed in this work. Excellent agreement of resonant frequencies and associated mode shapes is obtained for FEM calculation and theoretical analysis. To excite vibrations of a thick rectangular plate, a steel ball controlled by an electromagnet is utilized. A steel ball is dropped freely from a height of 231 mm on the top of the plate surface, and a transient wave will be generated after the ball impact on the specimen. The frequency spectrum of the thick rectangular plate is constructed by using the fast Fourier transform of the time-domain transient response. The excited resonant frequencies obtained from experimental measurement are compared with theoretical results. The comparisons show that the modified FSDT provides an excellent prediction of the resonant frequencies and mode shapes for the dynamic characteristics of thick rectangular plates.