Free vibration analysis of variable thickness thin and moderately thick plates with elastically restrained edges by DQM

A differential quadrature (DQ) procedure is developed for free vibration analysis of variable thickness moderately thick plates with edges elastically restrained against translation and rotation. The governing equations are based on the first order shear deformation theory and the rotary inertia effects are considered. Comparisons with known thin plate and uniform thickness Mindlin plate solutions are carried out to verify the applicability and accuracy of the analysis. Plates with linear or nonlinear varying thickness in one or two directions can be considered. It is demonstrated that using this DQ procedure, classical boundary conditions such as simply supported, clamped and free edges for variable thickness, thin as well as moderately thick plates can be simulated without any numerical difficulties. The effects of different combinations of constraints at edges, aspect ratio, thickness-to-length ratio, and stiffness parameter values on accuracy and convergence behaviors of the plates are presented. Some new results are presented for bi-linearly variable thickness plates with elastically restrained edges.