ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the analysis of vibration of plates with hybrid effects, viz., simultaneous effects of variable thickness, nonhomogeneity, and orthotropic material. Practical applications of orthotopic plates in civil, marine, and aerospace engineering are numerous. Plates with variable thickness are often used in machine design, nuclear reactor technology, naval structures, and acoustical components. The hybrid complicating effects include the simultaneous consideration of two or more complicating effects on the vibration behavior. The effect of nonhomogeneity and variable thickness on the natural frequencies of circular and elliptic plates with rectangular orthotropic material has been studied by using Boundary Characteristic Orthogonal Polynomials in the Rayleigh–Ritz method. A desired frequency can be obtained by a proper choice of the various plate parameters considered, which would be beneficial for the design engineers.
