Axisymmetric Vibration of Polar Orthotropic Circular Plates of Quadratically Varying Thickness Resting on Elastic Foundation

This paper is concerned with the axisymmetric vibration problem of polar orthotropic circular plates of quadratically varying thickness and resting on an elastic foundation. The problem is solved by using the Rayleigh–Ritz method with boundary characteristic orthonormal polynomials for approximating the deflection function. Numerical results are computed for frequencies, nodal radii and mode shapes. Three-dimensional graphs are also plotted for the first four normal modes of axisymmetric vibration of plates with free, simply-supported and clamped edge conditions for various values of taper, orthotropy and foundation parameters.