Free vibration characteristics of a rectangular plate carrying multiple three-degree-of-freedom spring–mass systems using equivalent mass method

This paper aims at presenting a technique to replace each three-degree-of-freedom (3-dof) spring–mass system (or substructure) by a set of equivalent masses so that the dynamic characteristics of a rectangular plate (or main structure) carrying any number of elastically mounted lumped masses may be obtained from the same plate carrying the same sets of rigidly attached equivalent masses. Because the three degrees-of-freedom (dof s) of the substructure are embedded in its equivalent masses, the total dof of the entire vibrating system (i.e., the main structure together with all the substructures) is independent on the total number of the substructures attached to the main structure in the presented equivalent mass method (EMM). However, in the conventional finite element method (FEM), the total dof of the entire vibrating system increases by three when one more substructure is attached to the main structure. Compared with FEM, the merits of EMM are double: Firstly, since the total dof of the entire vibrating system in EMM is smaller than that in FEM, some computer storage memory may be saved. Secondly, since the dof s for all the substructures are eliminated, the associated natural frequencies and mode shapes are excluded from those of the main structure and some effort required for the analysis of computer-output data may also be saved. It is evident that the last merits of EMM will be more predominant if the total number of substructures attached to the main structure is large.