Application of a Weak Form Quadrature Element Method to Nonlinear Free Vibrations of Thin Rectangular Plates

Geometrically nonlinear free vibrations of thin rectangular plates are studied using the recently developed weak form quadrature element method (QEM). The nonlinear von Karman plate theory is employed to express the strain-displacement relations. The weak form description of the plate is formulated on the basis of the variational principle. The integrals involved in the variational description are evaluated by an efficient numerical integration scheme, and the partial derivatives at the integration points are approximated by differential quadrature analogs. A system of algebraic equations is eventually derived, and the nonlinear frequencies and mode shapes are extracted from solving the equations. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by a convergence study. The accuracy of the method is illustrated by comparing the computed nonlinear to linear frequency ratios with those available in the literature. The influences of the nonlinearity on higher order frequencies and mode shapes are exhibited as well.