A variational approach to free vibration analysis of shear deformable polygonal plates with variable thickness

This paper presents a simple and general variational approach for the study of the free vibration behaviour of polygonal isotropic plates with variable thickness. The Reissner–Mindlin plate theory is used to take into account the effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia in the analysis. Moreover, this theory allows obtaining greater accuracy of frequency coefficients corresponding to vibration higher modes, even for the thin plates. The governing eigenvalue equation is obtained employing the Ritz method. The plate geometry is approximated by using non-orthogonal triangular co-ordinates, while sets of independent polynomials, expressed in these co-ordinates, are employed to approximate the displacement and rotation fields. The developed algorithm allows obtaining approximated analytical solutions for plates with different aspect ratios, thickness variation and boundary conditions, including edges elastically restrained by both translational and rotational springs. Therefore, a unified program has been easily implemented. Convergence and comparison analyzes are carried out to verify the reliability and accuracy of the numerical solutions. Finally, sets of parametric studies are performed and the results are given in graphical and tabular form.