Abstract
Free vibrations of twisted cantilevered thin plates having thickness varying in two directions are investigated analytically and experimentally in this study. A numerical procedure based on the Rayleigh-Ritz method is presented using algebraic polynomials as displacement functions. To demonstrate the procedure, nondimensional frequency parameters and mode shapes are analyzed for typical twisted plates. The convergence of frequency parameters is studied and effects of plate thickness variation on vibrating characteristics are discussed. Experimental tests are carried out for three kinds of aluminum specimens. On the basis of comparison between experimentally obtained resonance frequencies and mode shapes and those obtained from the analysis, it appears that the numerical procedure proposed in the present study is useful for analyzing the free vibrations of twisted thin plates with variable thickness.
