Vibration and Buckling of Ss-f-ss-f Rectangular Plates Loaded By In-plane Moments

This paper presents exact solutions for the free vibrations and buckling of rectangular plates having two opposite, simply supported edges subjected to linearly varying normal stresses causing pure in-plane moments, the other two edges being free. Assuming displacement functions which are sinusoidal in the direction of loading (x), the simply supported edge conditions are satisfied exactly. With this the differential equation of motion for the plate is reduced to an ordinary one having variable coefficients (in y). This equation is solved exactly by assuming power series in y and obtaining its proper coefficients (the method of Frobenius). Applying the free edge boundary conditions at y=0, b yields a fourth order characteristic determinant for the critical buckling moments and vibration frequencies. Convergence of the series is studied carefully. Numerical results are obtained for the critical buckling moments and some of their associated mode shapes. Comparisons are made with known results from less accurate one-dimensional beam theory. Free vibration frequency and mode shape results are also presented. Because the buckling and frequency parameters depend upon the Poisson's ratio (ν), results are shown for 0≤ν≤0.5, valid for isotropic materials.