Free vibration analysis of continuous grading fiber reinforced plates on elastic foundation

The free vibration characteristics of rectangular continuous grading fiber reinforced (CGFR) plates resting on elastic foundations have been studied, based on the three-dimensional, linear and small strain elasticity theory. The foundation is described by the Pasternak or two-parameter model. The CGFR plate is simply supported at the edges and is assumed to have an arbitrary variation of fiber volume fraction in the thickness direction. Suitable displacement functions that identically satisfy the simply supported boundary conditions are used to reduce the equilibrium equations to a set of coupled ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients, which can be solved by differential quadrature method (DQM) to obtain natural frequencies. Convergence studies have been performed on CGFR plates on the elastic foundations. It is shown that the present method has a rapid convergent rate, stable numerical operation and very high accuracy. Besides results for CGFR plate with arbitrary variation of fiber volume fraction in the plate’s thickness are compared with discrete laminated composite plate. The main contribution of this work is to present useful results for continuous grading of fiber reinforcement in the thickness direction of a plate on elastic foundation and comparison with similar discrete laminate composite plate. Results indicate the advantages of using CGFR plate with graded fiber volume fractions over traditional discretely laminated plates.