VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE RECTANGULAR PLATES WITH GENERAL BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

In this investigation, the free vibration analysis of laminated composite rectangular plates with general boundary conditions is performed with a modified Fourier series method. Vibration characteristics of the plates have been obtained via an energy function represented in the general coordinates, in which the displacement and rotation in each direction is described as an improved form of double Fourier cosine series and several closed-form auxiliary functions to eliminate any possible jumps and boundary discontinuities. All the expansion coefficients are then treated as the generalized coordinates and determined by Rayleigh-Ritz method. The convergence and reliability of the current method are verified by comparing with the results in the literature and those of Finite Element Analysis. The effects of boundary conditions and geometric parameters on the frequencies are discussed as well. Finally, numerous new results for laminated composite rectangular plates with different geometric parameters are presented for various boundary conditions, which may serve as benchmark solutions for future research.