An improved Fourier series method for vibration analysis of moderately thick annular and circular sector plates subjected to elastic boundary conditions

In this paper, an improved Fourier series method is presented for vibration analysis of moderately thick annular and circular sector plates subjected to general elastic boundary conditions along its edges. In literature, annular and circular sector plates subjected to classical boundary conditions have been studied in detail however in practical engineering applications the boundary conditions are not always classical in nature. Therefore, study of vibration response of these plates subjected to general elastic boundary conditions is far needed. In the method presented, artificial boundary spring technique has been employed to simulate the general elastic boundary conditions and first order shear deformation theory has been employed to formulate the theoretical model. Irrespective of the boundary conditions, each of the displacement function is expressed as a new form of trigonometric expansion with accelerated convergence. Rayleigh-Ritz method has been employed to determine the expansion coefficients. Unlike most of the studies on vibration analysis of moderately thick annular sector plates, the present method can be universally applied to a wide range of vibration problems involving different boundary conditions, varying material and geometric properties without modifying the solution algorithms and procedure. The effectiveness, reliability and accuracy of the present method is fully demonstrated and verified by several numerical examples. Bench mark solutions for moderately thick annular sector and circular plates under general elastic boundary conditions are also presented for future computational methods.