VIBRATION AND BUCKLING OF TAPERED RECTANGULAR-PLATES WITH 2 OPPOSITE EDGES SIMPLY SUPPORTED AND THE OTHER 2 EDGES ELASTICALLY RESTRAINED AGAINST ROTATION

The paper describes an application of a method of power series expansions to the free vibration and buckling problems of isotropic rectangular plates with linear thickness variation. The plates are simply supported on the two opposite edges parallel to the direction of thickness variation and the other two edges are elastically restrained against rotation. By the present method, one can solve exactly the governing equation with variable coefficients. The choice of the origin for the power series expansion plays an important role in obtaining rapid convergence and accurate results. The effects of thickness variation and rotational stiffness of the elastic spring on the eigenvalues and mode shapes are shown numerically and graphically on the basis of new results obtained by the present exact analysis. © 1991.