Vibration Analysis of Mindlin Plates by the Superposition-Galerkin Method

In the first part of this paper, it is demonstrated how the superposition of four judiciously selected forced vibration solutions to rectangular mindlin plate vibration problems permits the obtaining of an eigenvalue matrix from which the resonant frequencies of fully clamped mindlin plates can be extracted. Subsequently, it is shown how the same forced vibration solutions can be obtained much more efficiently by the Galerkin Method. After superposition of the latter solutions, it is shown how the same resonant frequencies are obtained. The vast advantages of exploiting this latter “Superposition-Galerkin” method are enumerated and discussed in detail.