AN EXACT SERIES SOLUTION FOR CALCULATING THE EIGENFREQUENCIES OF ORTHOTROPIC PLATES WITH COMPLETELY FREE BOUNDARY

An analysis for solving boundary value problems in structural mechanics which was proposed by Wang and Lin (1996 Journal of Sound and Vibration196, 285–293; 1999 Journal of Applied Mechanics66, 380–387) [1, 2] has been extended to the calculation of the eigenfrequencies of an orthotropic plate under all free boundary conditions. The convergence of the series solution is assured and the procedure leads to pointwise exact solutions. The calculated eigenfrequencies have been verified by a different approach and indicate that the present method is simple and effective.