Linear and nonlinear transient vibration analysis of stiffened plate structures

Abstract

The spline finite strip method has been applied to linear and nonlinear transient vibration analysis of plates and stiffened plates. In this method, spline functions have been used as the displacement interpolation functions in one direction while finite element shape functions have been used for that in the other direction. The von Karman's large deflection plate theory has been used and the formulation has been done in total Lagrangian coordinate system. The governing equations have been solved by the Newton-Raphson iteration technique where Newmark's method has been used for the time integration. The stiffener has been elegantly modelled so that it may lie anywhere within the plate strip, which helps to increase the flexibility in mesh generation. The formulation has been generalised to cater plates having arbitrary shapes and stiffeners having arbitrary orientation and eccentricity. Examples of stiffened and unstiffened plates under different loading history as available in the literature have been solved to study the performance and range of applicability of the proposed method. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.