Transverse Vibration Analysis of Axially Moving Trapezoidal Plates

Transverse vibration of axially moving trapezoidal plates is investigated. The differential equation of transverse vibration for a axially moving trapezoidal plate is established by D'Alembert principle. The original trapezoid region can be replaced by regular square region by the medium parameter method for the convenience of calculation. A generalized complex eigenvalue equation is derived by a discrete method (the differential quadrature method). The complex frequency curve of trapezoidal plate is obtained by calculating the eigen-value equation. The change of the complex frequencies of the axially moving trapezoidal plates with the dimensionless axially moving speed is analyzed. The effects of the aspect ratio and the trapezoidal angle on instability type of the trapezoidal plate are discussed under different boundary conditions. The results of numerical analysis show that there are two main instability types of axially moving trapezoidal plate: diver-gence and flutter. The modal orders of the two types of instability are also different, which is related to the trapezoidal angle, aspect ratio and boundary condition of the trapezoidal plate.