Vibrations of point-supported rectangular plates with variable thickness using a set of static tapered beam functions

This paper studies the free vibrations of point-supported rectangular plates with variable thickness using the Rayleigh–Ritz method. The domain of the plate is bounded by x=αa′, a′ (0⩽α<1); y=βb′, b′ (0⩽β<1) in the Cartesian coordinate system. The thickness of the plate varies continuously and is represented by a power function (x/a′)s(y/b′)t. Varieties of tapered rectangular plates can be described by giving s and t different values. A set of static tapered beam functions which are the solutions of a tapered beam (a unit width strip taken from the particular plate under consideration in one or the other direction parallel to its edges) under a Taylor series of static loads, are developed as the admissible functions for the vibration analysis of point-supported rectangular plates with variable thickness in one or two directions. The eigenfrequency equation is derived through the Rayleigh–Ritz approach, supplemented by the zero deflection conditions at the point-supports. A very simple program in common use has been compiled. The convergence study shows a small computational cost and the comparison with known solutions for point-supported rectangular plates with uniform thickness demonstrates the accuracy of the present method. Finally, some new numerical results are given, which may serve as the benchmarks for future research on the aforementioned problem.