Application of the spline element method to analyze vibration of skew mindlin plates with varying thickness in one direction

This paper presents an application of the spline element method based on the Mindlin plate theory to analyze the vibration of thick skew plates with varying thickness in the longitudinal direction. To demonstrate the convergence and accuracy of the present method, several examples are solved, and results are compared with those obtained by other numerical methods. Good accuracy is obtained. Frequencies of skew Mindlin plates with varying cross-sections having arbitrary boundary conditions are analyzed for different thickness ratios, aspect ratios, ratios of the width to thickness and skew angles. (C) 2001 Academic Press.