Closed form solutions for free vibrations of rectangular Mindlin plates

A new two-eigenfunctions theory, using the amplitude deflection and the generalized curvature as two fundamental eigenfunctions, is proposed for the free vibration solutions of a rectangular Mindlin plate. The three classical eigenvalue differential equations of a Mindlin plate are reformulated to arrive at two new eigenvalue differential equations for the proposed theory. The closed form eigensolutions, which are solved from the two differential equations by means of the method of separation of variables are identical with those via Kirchhoff plate theory for thin plate, and can be employed to predict frequencies for any combinations of simply supported and clamped edge conditions. The free edges can also be dealt with if the other pair of opposite edges are simply supported. Some of the solutions were not available before. The frequency parameters agree closely with the available ones through pb-2 Rayleigh–Ritz method for different aspect ratios and relative thickness of plate.