ABSTRACT
The finite element method is an effective approach to the problem of stiffened plates including analysis of free vibrations. Mukherjee & Mukhopadhyay (1986) used finite element method to analyze free vibration response of orthogonal and skew stiffened plates with different boundary conditions and with varying number of stiffeners. Isoparametric quadratic plate bending element was used in the analysis to accommodate irregular boundaries of stiffened plate geometries. Mukherjee & Mukhopadhyay (1988) and Harik & Guo (1993) used finite element method to analyze the free vibration response of eccentrically stiffened plates while Chandrashekhara & Kolli (1997) and Ahmadian & Zangeneh (2003) to analyze free vibration response of eccentrically stiffened laminated plates. Liew et al. (1994) analyzed the natural frequencies of Mindlin plates with stiffeners, to consider the effects of transverse shear of a stiffened plate and the stiffeners including torsion.
