
78 Structural Acoustics: Deterministic and Random Phenomena
© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
5.3 Rectangular Plates
To calculate the frequency and response (deection or stress) of the plate,
the normal modes of vibration must be known. Young
11
has employed the
beam functions to approximate the normal modes of vibration of rectangu-
lar plates by using the Ritz method for his calculations. In the calculations
that follow, the normal modes of the plate are approximated by the product
of two beam functions (i.e., w
m
= X
i
Y
j
). (Note that the numbers i and j are
connected with the mode—for example, for the rst mode, i = 1, j = 1; for
the second ...