Effect of finite fluid depth on the hydroelastic vibrations of circular and annular plates

This paper deals with the free vibrations of circular and annular plates in contact with a finite fluid domain on one side; the plates are placed in an annular (or circular) aperture of an infinite rigid wall and the fluid is assumed to be incompressible and inviscid. The cases of a fluid domain limited either by a free surface or by rigid walls are studied. The assumed mode approach and the Rayleigh-Ritz approach are both used; the trial functions used in the mode expansion are the mode shapes of the vibrations in a vacuum and the solution is obtained as that of an eigenvalue problem. The effect of the depth of the fluid domain on the added virtual mass factors, natural frequencies and mode shapes is studied. Dimensionless factors are given for engineering applications. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited