Compound Strip Method for Free Vibration Analysis of Continuous Plates

Abstract

A finite strip method is developed for the analysis of continuous elastic plate systems. This approach incorporates the effect of support element stiffness and mass in a direct manner. The stiffness and mass contributions of the support elements are derived and given as strip matrices. These matrices add directly with the plate strip matrices at the element level. This summation constitutes a substructure termed a compound strip. This methodology may be readily incorporated into existing finite strip programs based on lower order elements. The theory is illustrated with an example analysis. The compound strip methodology compares favorably with the finite element method for frequency and mode shape.