Hydroelastic vibration and buckling of rectangular Mindlin plates on Pasternak foundations under linearly varying in-plane loads

Hydroelastic vibration and buckling analysis of horizontal rectangular plates resting on Pasternak foundation and subjected to linearly varying in-plane loads is investigated for different boundary conditions. Fluid is assumed to be inviscid and incompressible. To analyze the interaction of the Mindlin plate with the elastic foundation and fluid system, three displacement components of the plate are expressed in the Ritz method by adopting a set of static Timoshenko beam functions satisfying geometric boundary conditions. Convergence study is first carried out to confirm the stability of the present method. Then, a few comparisons are made for limited cases between present results and the available data in the literature. Finally, parametric study is conducted to highlight the effects of loading factors, fluid levels, foundation stiffness parameters, aspect ratios, thickness to width ratios and different boundary conditions on the critical buckling loads and wet natural frequencies of rectangular plates. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.