VIBRATION AND STABILITY OF A NONUNIFORM ANNULAR PLATE SUBJECTED TO A FOLLOWER FORCE

Presents a study on the vibration and dynamic stability of a nonuniform annular plate subjected to a follower force radially distributed at the outer edge, in which the transfer matrix method is used. The equations of flexural vibration of the plate are written in a coupled set of first-order differential equations by using the transfer matrix of the plate. Once the matrix has been determined by numerical integration of the equations, the natural frequencies and the critical flutter loads are calculated numerically in terms of the elements of the matrix for a given set of boundary conditions at the edges of the plate. This method is applied to annular plates of linearly, parabolically or exponentially varying thickness, and the effects of the varying thickness, inner/outer radii ratio and edge conditions are studied.