Large amplitude free vibration study of non-uniform plates with in-plane material inhomogeneity

Free vibration study of non-uniform plates with in-plane material inhomogeneity is carried out in the present work considering geometric nonlinearity. Inhomogeneous plates where the material properties vary along only x-axis (unidirectional) and along both x- and y-axis (bidirectional) are considered. The analysis is performed for two boundary conditions namely clamped and simply supported at all edges, under the action of a transverse uniformly distributed load. The large amplitude problem is formulated using nonlinear strain-displacement relations along with a variational form of energy method. A two-step solution procedure is utilised where, in the first part the static problem is solved and undetermined coefficients are found, subsequently the dynamic problem is taken up on the basis of previously determined coefficients. Validity of the results is successfully confirmed by comparison with the works of other researchers. The analysis reveals that the amplitude and taper parameter affect the loaded natural frequencies significantly. Three-dimensional mode shapes for linear and nonlinear cases are presented along with their respective contour plots.