International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

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International Journal of Mechanical Sciences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmecsci

Application of dynamic stiffness method for accurate free vibration

analysis of sigmoid and exponential functionally graded rectangular plates
Subodh Kumar a, Prasun Jana b,∗
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad 826004, Jharkhand, India
b
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, West Bengal, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: In this work, the dynamic stiffness method (DSM) is implemented to investigate free vibration behaviour of thin
Dynamic stiffness method rectangular functionally graded material (FGM) plate with the sigmoid (S-FGM) and exponential (E-FGM) prop-
Wittrick-Williams algorithm erty variations along its thickness direction. Both uniform and stepped thickness FGM plates are considered in
Classical plate theory
this study. Classical plate theory in conjunction with the physical neutral surface of the FGM plate is utilized to
Functionally graded plate
obtain the governing differential equation of motion including the effect of rotary inertia. Considering Levy type
Exponential function
Sigmoid function plates, the dynamic stiffness matrix is developed through the application of displacement and force boundary
conditions at the appropriate edges. The well-known Wittrick-Williams algorithm is employed to solve this dy-
namic stiffness matrix in order to compute the natural frequencies of the plate with reasonably high accuracy. It
is shown upon comparison with the existing literature that the DSM frequency results are most accurate and can
be referred to judge the accuracy of several other numerical solutions applied to thin S-FGM and E-FGM plates.
This study also highlights some insufficiently accurate published results and points out the possible reasons for
this inaccuracy. Finally, this study reports a set of new results by changing different plate parameters which will
be useful in the design of both uniform and stepped FGM plates under considerations.

1. Introduction According to the literature, the through-thickness variation of the

This paper deals with the application of the dynamic stiffness method
(DSM) in free vibration analysis of thin rectangular functionally graded
material (FGM) plates which plays an important role in the structural
design of many industrial fields including aerospace, automotive, civil,
and marine engineering. FGM plates are usually formed by proper mix-
ing of two different material constituents (e.g. ceramic and metal) which
eventually produces a smooth variation of mechanical properties in the
thickness direction of the plate [1,2]. To determine the effective material
properties of such unidirectional composites, wavelet analysis supported
by homogenization-based finite element analysis can be used [3]. In the
ceramic-metal FGM plates, the ceramic rich surface provides high ther-
mal resistant and eliminates stress singularities whereas the metal rich
surface provides high strength and high fracture resistance [4]. Due to
these potential advantages, FGM plates are extensively used in various
domains of engineering [5]. In the operating conditions, these structures
are often subjected to some unexpected internal or external excitations
which results in the production of excessive vibration or noise in the
structure. Therefore, study of the vibration characteristics of these thin
FGM plates remain as an important task in their design processes.
mechanical properties of FGM plates is commonly idealised by using two
different mathematical models: sigmoid function, exponential function,
and power-law function [6,7]. Literature on the analysis of FGM plates
with the power-law material behaviour is rich [1,6–12]. However, vibra-
tion analysis of FGM plates with the sigmoid (S-FGM) and exponential
(E-FGM) material property variations has not got due attention in the
literature [13,14]. It is also shown that some of these published results
[13] are found to be insufficiently accurate (refer to the discussion in
Section 5.1.3). Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no
literature discusses the vibration behaviour of stepped E-FGM and S-
FGM plates. In this context, this work implements the dynamic stiffness
method (DSM) [15] to investigate the free vibration behaviour of thin
rectangular FGM plates considering the S-FGM and E-FGM property vari-
ations. Uniform as well as stepped thickness plates are considered. For
better accuracy, this study also includes the effect of rotary inertia in the
calculation of natural frequencies. Using the classical plate theory (CPT)
in conjunction with the concept of physical neutral surface [16–18] of
the FGM plate, the governing differential equation of motion for the
free vibration of the plate is derived by implementing Hamilton’s prin-
ciple. Considering Levy type plate boundary conditions, the dynamic

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: subodhkumarism@gmail.com (S. Kumar), prasun@aero.iitkgp.ac.in (P. Jana).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2019.105105
Received 17 May 2019; Received in revised form 25 August 2019; Accepted 26 August 2019
Available online 29 August 2019
0020-7403/© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Kumar and P. Jana
stiffness (DS) matrix is developed through the application of geometric
(displacement) and natural (force) boundary conditions at the appropri-
ate edges. Finally, the well-known Wittrick-Williams [19] algorithm is
applied to compute the natural frequencies as the eigenvalues of this DS
matrix.
The DSM is considered to be a robust and effective method that can
be used as an alternate to the more conventional finite element method
(FEM). DSM has the capability to generate more accurate, reliable and
efficient solutions in comparison to the FEM. The assembly process in
both DSM and FEM is essentially the same. However, the main differ-
ence between them lies in the discretization technique. In case of FEM,
separate stiffness and mass matrices are obtained by the discretization
of a structural element based on its assumed shape functions. Whereas,
in DSM, a single element matrix containing both stiffness and mass
proprieties is obtained by using exact frequency-dependant shape func-
tions which is derived from the governing differential equation of the
structural element undergoing free vibration. Therefore, the results ob-
tained from DSM are often called exact as they are based on the ex-
act shape functions derived from the governing differential equation of
the problem. For these reasons, DSM has continued to gain its popular-
ity amongst the researchers. Some relevant literature pertaining to the
DSM studies are mentioned here. The first work on the DSM was pub-
lished by Wittrick and Williams [20], in the early seventies, to study
the vibration and buckling behaviour of the isotropic and anisotropic
plates. Almost two decades later, a general methodology to formulate
the dynamic stiffness matrices for structural elements was presented by
Banerjee [21] in which the author showed that if analytical expressions
are utilized in place of the numerical methods in DSM then a consider-
able amount of computational time can be saved. Thereafter, several re-
searchers [18,22–28] have implemented this DSM formulation to study
the vibration behaviour of isotropic as well as composite plates with
different boundary conditions at the edges.
The present study implements the Wittrick-Williams algorithm in the
formulation of DSM to analyse free vibration behaviour of S-FGM and E-
FGM plates. The DSM frequency results are compared with the existing
literature values wherever available and a set of new results are reported
by changing different plate parameters which will be useful in the design
of S-FGM and E-FGM plates under consideration.
The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. In Section 2,
main contributions of the paper are highlighted. In Section 3, geom-
etry and the description of the material properties of the S-FGM and
E-FGM plates are presented. In Section 4, theoretical formulation of the
DSM is described. First, the governing differential equation for the free
vibration analysis of FGM plate is derived considering the effect of ro-
tary inertia. Subsequently, the dynamic stiffness matrix is obtained and
the method of computation of the DSM natural frequencies is briefly
discussed. In Section 5, a detailed discussion of the DSM results is pre-
sented. First, the results are compared with the available literature. Sub-
sequently, frequency results for both uniform and stepped S-FGM and
E-FGM plates are discussed. Finally, in Section 6, important conclusions
drawn from this work are highlighted.
2. Scope and contributions of the present work
This work considers the free vibration behaviour of the thin FGM
plates considering two material property variations (e.g. S-FGM and E-
FGM plates). Classical plate theory is used to describe the kinematic
variable of the plate. Thus the effect of shear deformations is not con-
sidered and the results may not be applicable to thicker plate. Hence,
thin plates can be analysed using this approach. However, the effect
of rotary inertia has been included in the analysis for better accuracy.
The Levy-type plate boundary conditions are considered where two op-
posite edges are simply supported and other two edges have arbitrary
boundary conditions. With these limitations and scope, the main con-
tributions of the present work, in the context of the existing literature,
can be summarized as follows.
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105
• Wittrick-Williams algorithm is implemented, for the first time, in the
formulation of DSM to study free vibration behaviour of both S-FGM
and E-FGM plates.
• Upon comparison with the available literature, it is shown that the
DSM frequency results for these thin FGM plates are highly accurate
and can be referred to judge accuracy of several different numerical
methods.
• This work also highlights some insufficiently accurate published re-
sults and points out the possible reasons for this inaccuracy.
• A set of new frequency results are reported by changing different
plate parameters of the S-FGM and E-FGM plates.
• For the first time in the literature, free vibration behaviour of stepped
S-FGM and E-FGM plates are analysed in this work.
3. Geometry and material properties of the plate
3.1. Geometrical configuration
Let the dimensions of the FGM rectangular plate be as length = a,
width = b and thickness = h. A Cartesian coordinate system (x, y, z), as
represented in Fig. 1, is considered for the mathematical formulations
of the plate. The FGM plate is assumed to be made from a mixture of
ceramic and metal, and the material properties of the plate varies only
along the thickness direction. Here, as a convention, the top side of the
FGM plate is considered as ceramic rich and the bottom side is metal
rich.
3.2. Material property description
As discussed earlier, the functionally graded materials are made up
by varying continuously the volume fraction distribution of the con-
stituent phases along the thickness direction. This variation of the con-
stituents along the thickness direction also results in the variation of the
mechanical properties of the plate. In this study, the following two ide-
alised mathematical models are used to describe this material property
variation of the FGM plate along the thickness direction.
3.2.1. Sigmoid function (S-FGM)
According to sigmoid function [6,7,14], the volume fractions of the
plate are defined by
( )
1 2𝑧 𝑝
𝑉 1 (z ) = 1 − 1− for 0 ≤ 𝑧 ≤ ℎ∕2
2 ℎ
( )𝑝
1 2𝑧
𝑉 2 (z ) = 1+ for − ℎ∕2 ≤ 𝑧 ≤ 0. (1)
2 ℎ
Here, 0 ≤ p < ∞ is a material parameter known as sigmoid-function
exponent (or material gradient index or sigmoid volume fraction index)
which determines the volume fractions of the constituent materials in
the thickness direction of the plate. The material properties variation in
the sigmoid function by using the rule of mixture can be given by
[ ]
𝑃1 (z) = 𝑉1 (z)𝑃𝑐 + 1 − 𝑉1 (z) 𝑃𝑚 for 0 ≤ 𝑧 ≤ ℎ∕2
[ ]
𝑃2 (z) = 𝑉2 (z)𝑃𝑐 + 1 − 𝑉2 (z) 𝑃𝑚 for − ℎ∕2 ≤ 𝑧 ≤ 0 (2)
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the FGM plate (with uniform thickness) represent-
ing the coordinate system, geometrical mid-surface and physical neutral surface.
Here, y-axis represents the length direction of the plate.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Fig. 2. Variation of Young’s modulus of the FGM plate along the thickness direction: (a) For sigmoid function, (b) for exponential function. Material properties used
in these figures are taken from Table 1.

Table 1 Note that, in this study, we have not considered the material
Material properties of the constituents of a functionally graded plate. (adopted property variation for the Poisson’s ratios (𝜈) along the thickness of
from [8–11,18]). the plate. As the FGM plate is considered to be thin, the through
Material constituents Young’s modulus Density Poisson’s ratio thickness variation of the Poisson’s ratios (𝜈) may become negligible
[6–13,15–17,28–32].
Alumina (Al2 O3 ) 380 GPa 3800 Kg/m3 0.3
Aluminium (Al) 70 GPa 2707 Kg/m3 0.3

4. Theory and mathematical modelling

The Eq. (2) for the sigmoid function depicts variation of material
properties such as the Young’s modulus (E(z)) and density (𝜌(z) in its
two halves of the S-FGM plate. Here, Pc and Pm refer to the material
properties values of the pure metal and ceramic constituent, respec-
tively. Interestingly, the S-FGM plate behaves as a homogenous isotropic
plate with p = 0 and it takes the average property of the constituent
materials. Also, as p becomes very high, the S-FGM plate behaves as a
bi-material plate with the top half having the ceramic constituent and
the bottom half having the metallic counterpart. Therefore, the varia-
tion of p(0 ≤ p < ∞) controls the transformation of the sigmoid FGM
material from a homogeneous isotropic phase (p = 0) to a bi-material
phase (p = ∞) (lower half portion of FGM plate contains pure metal-
lic material and upper half of plate contains pure ceramic material)
which can be easily observed from the property variations shown in
Fig. 2(a).
In this work, Aluminium (Al) and Alumina (Al2 O3 ) are considered
as the metal and ceramic constituents of the FGM plate, respectively.
And their typical material properties values are tabulated in Table 1
(adopted from [8–11,18]).
3.2.2. Exponential function (E-FGM)
According to exponential function [13,29], the material properties
variation across the thickness is expressed as
( ) ( )
−𝛿 1− 2ℎ𝑧 1 𝑃𝑐
𝑃 (z) = P𝑐 𝑒 with 𝛿 = ln . (3)
2 𝑃𝑚
Here P(z) denotes various material properties along the thickness di-
rection of the E-FGM plate. Setting Pm = Pc leads to 𝛿 = 0, which shows
that the E-FGM plate behaves as a homogeneous isotropic plate with
the ceramic constituent. See Fig. 2(b) for the Young’s modulus variation
along the thickness direction for this exponential function described in
Eq. (3).
4.1. Strain-displacement and stress-strain relationship
In this study, the kinematic variables or the displacements compo-
nents of the rectangular FGM plate are defined by using the Classical
plate theory (CPT) [22] and are given by
𝜕𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦)
𝑢(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) = 𝑢0 (𝑥, 𝑦) − 𝑧
𝜕𝑥
𝜕𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦)
𝑣(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) = 𝑣0 (𝑥, 𝑦) − 𝑧
𝜕𝑥
𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) = 𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦). (4)
Here, the displacement components u0 (x, y) and v0 (x, y) are the
in-plane displacements at the geometrical mid-surface of the plate.
In case of thin homogeneous isotropic plates, for small deformation,
these in-plane displacements at the mid-surface are small and they
can be ignored. Thus, the vertical displacement w(x, y) remains as the
only unknown [18,22] in Eq. (4). However, this is not true for the
FGM plate. A considerable in-plane displacements are produced at the
geometric mid-surface of the FGM plates because of its nonhomoge-
neous nature along the out-of-plane direction and these components
cannot be neglected [16–18]. Thus a bending-stretching coupling in
Eq. (4) exists for the FGM plate due to non-coincidence of the geo-
metrical mid-surface and the physical neutral surface (PNS) of the FGM
plate. However, this bending-stretching coupling may be avoided if the
concept of PNS is appropriately employed. And this is done by defin-
ing a new coordinate zns = z − z0 at the PNS of the FGM plate with
z0 being the distance between these two surfaces (refer Fig. 1). Now,
the in-plane displacement components become small with respect to
this newly defined coordinate system zns and they can be neglected
[16–18].
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Fig. 3. (a) Variation of nondimensional z0 /h with Erat for the E-FGM plate. (b) Variation of z0 /h with the volume fraction index (p) in S-FGM plate for four different
Erat values.

With respect to the newly defined coordinates, the kinematic vari- Mathematical expressions of physical neutral surface (z0 ) for both S-
ables of the FGM plate take the following form FGM and E-FGM plates are given in Appendix A. It is to be noted that z0 ,
for S-FGM plate, depends on the Young’s modulus ratio Erat = Ec /Em and
𝜕𝑤 𝜕𝑤
𝑢(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) = −𝑧𝑛𝑠 = −(𝑧 − 𝑧0 ) volume fraction index (p). For E-FGM plate, z0 simply depends on Erat .
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑥
See Fig. 3(a) for the variation of z0 for E-FGM plate. This figure shows
𝜕𝑤 𝜕𝑤
𝑣(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) = −𝑧𝑛𝑠 = −(𝑧 − 𝑧0 ) that z0 = 0 for Erat = 1 and it increases as Erat increases. The z0 variation
𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑦
for S-FGM plate is shown in Fig. 3(b). For this case also z0 = 0 for Erat = 1
𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑧) = 𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦) (5)
as it corresponds to homogeneous isotropic plate. However, for Erat ≠
The non-zero strains associated with the above displacement com- 1, z0 increases and then converge to an asymptotic value for the higher
ponent can be expressed as values of the sigmoid volume fraction index (p). As seen from Fig. 2(a),
for higher values of p, the S-FGM plate will behave like a bi-material
𝜕2 𝑤 𝜕2 𝑤 𝜕2 𝑤
𝜀𝑥𝑥 = −𝑧𝑛𝑠 ; 𝜀𝑦𝑦 = −𝑧𝑛𝑠 ; 𝛾𝑥𝑦 = −2𝑧𝑛𝑠 ; (6) plate and the corresponding asymptotic value of z0 can be calculated as
𝜕 𝑥2 𝜕 𝑦2 𝜕𝑥𝑦
𝑧0 ∕ℎ = (𝐸 𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1)∕[4(𝐸 𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1)]. As an example, for Erat = 2, 5 and 10 the
where 𝜀xx and 𝜀yy are the normal strains in the directions of x and y, asymptotic values of z0 /h will be 0.0833, 0.1667 and 0.2250, respec-
respectively and 𝛾 xy is the x-y plane shear strain. tively. This can also be visualized from Fig. 3(b).
Considering that the material constituents obey the generalized In both the material property variation of FGM plates, it is seen that
Hooke’s law, the stress-strain or constitutive relationship can be writ- the physical neutral surface of FGM plate moves away from geometri-
ten in the following form cal mid surface and approaches towards the ceramic rich surface as Erat
increases. This occurs mainly due to the comparatively higher stiffness
⎡𝜎𝑥𝑥 ⎤ ⎡𝑄11 𝑄12 0 ⎤⎡𝜀𝑥𝑥 ⎤
⎢ 𝜎 ⎥ = ⎢𝑄 of the ceramic material constituents available at the top portion as com-
𝑄22 0 ⎥⎢ 𝜀𝑦𝑦 ⎥, (7)
⎢ 𝑦𝑦 ⎥ ⎢ 12 ⎥⎢ ⎥ pared to the metallic constitutes available at the bottom surface of the
⎣ 𝜏𝑥𝑦 ⎦ ⎣ 0 0 𝑄66 ⎦⎣ 𝛾𝑥𝑦 ⎦
FGM plate.
where 𝜎 xx and 𝜎 yy represents the normal stresses in the x- and y-
directions and 𝜏 xy represents the shear stress in the x-y plane of the
4.3. Governing differential equation of motion
plates. The components of the reduced stiffness, Qij , are given by
( ) ( ) ( )
𝐸 𝑧𝑛𝑠 𝜈𝐸 𝑧𝑛𝑠 𝐸 𝑧𝑛𝑠 This section presents the development of the governing differential
𝑄11 = 𝑄22 = ; 𝑄12 = 𝑄21 = and 𝑄66 = . (8) equation of motion which includes the effect of rotary inertia. To derive
1 − 𝜈2 1 − 𝜈2 2(1 + 𝜈)
the governing differential equation, Hamilton’s principle is used as it
4.2. Determination of physical neutral surface provides the equation of motion as well as the natural boundary con-
ditions which are essential in the development of the dynamic stiffness
The physical neutral surface (z0 ) is determined by equating the total matrix. According to Hamilton’s principle
axial forces, either in x or y direction, to zero at the cross-section of the
plate. Therefore, 𝛿 (𝑇 − 𝑈 )𝑑𝑡 = 0 (10)
∫
∑ ℎ∕2−𝑧0
𝐹𝑥 = 𝜎𝑥𝑥 𝑑𝐴 = 0; where T and U represent the kinetic and potential energy of the FGM
∫−ℎ∕2−𝑧0
plate, respectively. The kinetic energy T can be written as
which results in (( )2 ( )2 ( ) )
1 𝜕𝑢 𝜕𝑣 𝜕𝑤 2
ℎ∕2 𝑇 = 𝜌 + + 𝑑𝑉 (11)
∫−ℎ∕2 𝐸 (𝑧)𝑧𝑑 𝑧 2 ∫𝑉 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡 𝜕𝑡
𝑧0 = . (9)
ℎ∕2
∫−ℎ∕2 𝐸 (𝑧)𝑑 𝑧 with 𝜌 as the density of the FGM plate.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Fig. 4. (a) Plot of the nondimensional DFGM /Dc for different Erat values in E-FGM plate. (b) Plot between the nondimensional DFGM /Dc with volume fraction index
(p) in S-FGM plate for four different Erat values.

The potential energy U of the FGM plate is given by becomes asymptotic in case of the S-FGM plate as it tends to behave like
( ) a bi-material plate. The mathematical expression for that asymptotic
1
𝑈= 𝜎𝑥𝑥 𝜀𝑥𝑥 + 𝜎𝑦𝑦 𝜀𝑦𝑦 + 𝜏𝑥𝑦 𝛾𝑥𝑦 𝑑𝑉 . (12) behaviour is given by 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 ∕𝐷𝑐 = (𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 2 + 14𝐸
𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1)∕(8𝐸 𝑟𝑎𝑡 (𝐸 𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1)).
2 ∫𝑉
As an illustration, the asymptotic values of the nondimensional DFGM /Dc
By substituting the displacement components of Eq. (5) into for Erat = 2, 5 and 10 are 0.6875, 0.4000 and 0.2739, respectively and
Eq. (11) and the strain and stress relations of Eqs. (6) and (7) into this can be visualized in Fig. 4(b).
Eq. (12) and subsequently applying Hamilton’s principle, the govern- It is important to note from the derived natural boundary conditions
ing differential equation of motion and the natural boundary conditions in Eq. (14) that the transverse shear force Vx is associated with the dis-
are obtained as: placement w and the bending moment is associated with the rotation
( 4 ) ( 4 ) 𝜑y = −𝜕 w/𝜕 x. Also note that the term I2 in Eqs. (13) and (14) incorpo-
𝜕 𝑤 𝜕4 𝑤 𝜕4 𝑤 𝜕2 𝑤 𝜕 𝑤 𝜕4 𝑤
𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 +2 + + 𝐼0 − 𝐼2 + =0 rates the effect of the rotary inertia in the free vibration of the FGM
𝜕 𝑥4 𝜕 𝑥2 𝜕 𝑦2 𝜕 𝑦4 𝜕 𝑡2 𝜕 𝑥2 𝜕 𝑡2 𝜕 𝑦2 𝜕 𝑡2
plate. If I2 is set to zero, the rotary inertia effect will be neglected. The
(13) Eqs. (13) and (14) are the key element of the development of DS ma-
The natural boundary conditions1 : trix of an element of FGM rectangular plate and the details of this DSM
[ ( 3 ) ] formulation are given below.
𝜕 𝑤 𝜕3 𝑤 𝜕3 𝑤
𝑉𝑥 ∶ −𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 + (2 − 𝜈) + 𝐼2 𝛿𝑤
𝜕𝑥 3 𝜕 𝑥𝜕 𝑦 2 𝜕 𝑥𝜕 𝑡 2
( 2 ) 4.4. Formulation of the dynamic stiffness matrix
𝜕 𝑤 𝜕2 𝑤
𝑀𝑥𝑥 ∶ −𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 +𝜈 𝛿𝜙𝑦 . (14)
𝜕𝑥 2 𝜕 𝑦2 The following three major steps are involved in the development of
dynamic stiffness (DS) matrix for a structural element.
Here, DFGM is the flexural rigidity or bending stiffness of the plate,
I0 and I2 are transverse inertias of the FGM plate. Mathematical expres- • For free vibration of the plate, seek a closed form solution of the
sions of the DFGM , I0 and I2 for both S-FGM and E-FGM plates are given governing equations of motion.
in Appendix A. • Apply boundary conditions at the edges of the plate element in the
Interestingly, the nondimensional DFGM /Dc (with 𝐷𝑐 = algebraic form for the amplitudes of both displacements and forces.
𝐸𝑐 ℎ3 ∕(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) as the bending stiffness of homogeneous plate • Finally, remove the unknown constants associated with the ampli-
having only the ceramic constituents) varies differently for the different tudes of the harmonically varying forces to those of the given value
material properties variations. For Erat = 1, in both S-FGM and E-FGM of displacements which consequently yields the frequency depen-
plates, the nondimensional DFGM /Dc = 1 as it corresponds to a ceramic dant DS matrix.
material constituent homogeneous isotropic plate. The plot between the
nondimensional DFGM /Dc and various Erat values for the E-FGM plate is The explicit procedure for the formulation of the DS matrix, pertain-
shown in Fig. 4(a). The variation of DFGM /Dc with the sigmoid volume ing to the present work, is given below.
fraction index (p) for four different Erat values in the S-FGM plate is
shown in Fig. 4(b). Note that for large Erat values, the curve of DFGM /Dc 4.4.1. Levy-type boundary conditions
The development of the governing differential equation, shown in
1
Only the boundary conditions at x = 0 and x = b edges are indicated here Eq. (13), has already been discussed in Section 4.3. This subsection dis-
because this study seeks for a Levy-type solution of Eq. (14) wherein the other cusses the application of the boundary conditions. As mentioned earlier,
two edges (y = 0 and y = a) will be considered as simply supported [16,20–22]. in this work, Levy-type boundary condition of the rectangular plate is
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

( )
considered where at least two opposite sides are assumed to have sim- 𝑉𝑥𝑚 (𝑥, 𝑦) = 𝜐𝑥𝑚 (𝑥) sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦
ply supported boundary conditions. The standard Levy-type solution of [{ ( ) }
( 𝐼2 𝜔2 ( )
Eq. (13) that satisfies the boundary conditions derived in Eq. (14) is = − 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐴𝑚 𝑟31𝑚 − (2 − 𝜈)𝛼𝑚2 𝑟1𝑚 + 𝑟 sinh 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥
𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 1𝑚
sought in the following form: { ( ) }
𝐼2 𝜔2 ( )
+ 𝐵𝑚 𝑟31𝑚 − (2 − 𝜈)𝛼𝑚2 𝑟1𝑚 + 𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑠ℎ 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥
∑
∞
( ) 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 1𝑚
𝑤(𝑥, 𝑦, 𝑡) = 𝑊𝑚 (x)𝑒𝑖𝜔𝑡 sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦 with 𝛼𝑚 = 𝑚𝜋∕𝑎; (𝑚 = 1, 2, ...........∞) { ( ) }
𝐼2 𝜔2 ( )
𝑚=1 + 𝐶𝑚 𝑟32𝑚 + (2 − 𝜈)𝛼𝑚2 𝑟2𝑚 + 𝑟 sinh 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥
𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 2𝑚
(15) { ( ) } ]
𝐼2 𝜔2 ( ) ( )
+𝐷𝑚 𝑟32𝑚 + (2 − 𝜈)𝛼𝑚2 𝑟2𝑚 + 𝑟2𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑠ℎ 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦
where, 𝜔 is some unknown angular or circular frequency. By substituting 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀
Eq. (15) into Eq. (13), the following fourth order differential equation (22)
is obtained:
( ) ( ) ( )
𝑑 4 𝑊𝑚 𝐼 𝜔2 𝑑 2 𝑊𝑚 𝐼 𝜔2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝛼𝑚2 𝑀𝑥𝑥𝑚 (𝑥, 𝑦) = M𝑥𝑚 (𝑥) sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦
− 2𝛼𝑚2 − 2 + 𝛼𝑚4 − 0 − 𝑊𝑚 = 0. [ ( 2 ) ( )
𝑑 𝑥4 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝑑 𝑥2 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 = − 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐴𝑚 𝑟1𝑚 − 𝜈𝛼𝑚2 𝑐𝑜𝑠ℎ 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥
( 2 ) ( ) ( ) ( )
(16) + 𝐵𝑚 𝑟1𝑚 − 𝜈𝛼𝑚2 𝑠𝑖𝑛ℎ 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐶𝑚 𝑟22𝑚 − 𝜈𝛼𝑚2 𝑐𝑜𝑠ℎ 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥
( ) ( )] ( )
+𝐷𝑚 𝑟22𝑚 − 𝜈𝛼𝑚2 sinh 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦 (23)
Based on the nature of the four roots of above Eq. (16), two solutions
are possible: The displacement BCs are:
√
𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼 𝜔2 2 𝐼0 𝜔2 𝑥 = 0, 𝑊𝑚 = 𝑊1 , 𝜙𝑦𝑚 = Φ𝑦1
Case I. (𝛼𝑚2 − )≥ ( 2𝐷2 ) + (24)
2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝑥 = 𝑏, 𝑊𝑚 = 𝑊2 , 𝜙𝑦𝑚 = Φ𝑦2

This corresponds to all four roots that are real (r1m ,−r1m ,r2m ,−r2m ,), And, the force BCs are:
√ √ 𝑥 = 0, 𝑉𝑥𝑚 = −𝜐1 , 𝑀𝑥𝑥𝑚 = −M1
√( ) ( )2 (25)
√ 𝑥 = 𝑏, 𝑉𝑥𝑚 = 𝜐2 , 𝑀𝑥𝑥𝑚 = M2
√ 2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼 𝜔2
𝑟1𝑚 = 𝛼𝑚 − + + 0 ,
2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 In this paper, the same sign conventions are adopted as given by
√ √
√( ) ( )2 Boscolo and Banerjee [22] in which free vibration behaviour of ho-
√
√ 2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼0 𝜔2 mogeneous isotropic plate was considered. Substituting Eq. (24) into
𝑟2𝑚 = 𝛼𝑚 − − + , (17)
2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 Eqs. (18) and (21), the following matrix relationship for the displace-
ment BCs is obtained.
The solution is
⎡𝑊1 ⎤ ⎡ 1 0 1 0 ⎤⎡ 𝐴𝑚 ⎤
( ) ( ) ( ) ⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥
𝑊𝑚 (𝑥) = 𝐴𝑚 cosh 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐵𝑚 sinh 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐶𝑚 cosh 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 ⎢ Φ1 ⎥ = ⎢ 0 −𝑟1𝑚 0 −𝑟2𝑚 ⎥⎢ 𝐵𝑚 ⎥
( ) (26)
+ 𝐷𝑚 sinh 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 . (18) ⎢𝑊2 ⎥ ⎢ 𝐶ℎ1 𝑆ℎ1 𝐶ℎ2 𝑆ℎ2 ⎥⎢ 𝐶𝑚 ⎥
⎢ Φ ⎥ ⎢− 𝑟 𝑆 −𝑟1𝑚 𝐶ℎ1 −𝑟2𝑚 𝑆ℎ2 −𝑟2𝑚 𝐶ℎ2 ⎥⎦⎢⎣𝐷𝑚 ⎥⎦
⎣ 2 ⎦ ⎣ 1𝑚 ℎ1
√
2
𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼 𝜔2 𝐼0 𝜔2 i.e.
Case II. (𝛼𝑚2 − 2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀
)< ( 2𝐷2 ) + 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀
𝐹 𝐺𝑀
𝛿 = 𝐴𝐶 (27)
This corresponds to two real roots and two imaginary roots
where,
(r1m ,−r1m ,ir2m ,−ir2m ),
( ) ( ) ( )
√ √ 𝐶ℎ𝑖 = cosh 𝑟𝑖 𝑏 , 𝑆ℎ𝑖 = sinh 𝑟𝑖 𝑏 , 𝐶𝑖 = cos 𝑟𝑖𝑚 𝑏 and
√( ) ( )2 ( )
√
√ 2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼0 𝜔2 𝑆𝑖 = sin 𝑟𝑖𝑚 𝑏 with 𝑖 = 1, 2. (28)
𝑟1𝑚 = 𝛼𝑚 − + + ,
2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀
√ √ Thereafter, substituting Eq. (25) into Eqs. (22) and (23), the follow-
√ ( ) ( )2
√ ing matrix equation for the force BCs is obtained:
√ 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼2 𝜔2 𝐼0𝜔2
𝑟2𝑚 = − 𝛼𝑚2 − + + , (19)
2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 2𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 ⎡ 𝜐1 ⎤ ⎡ 0 𝑅1 0 𝑅2 ⎤⎡ 𝐴𝑚 ⎤
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥
The solution is: ⎢M1 ⎥ = ⎢ 𝐿1 0 𝐿2 0 ⎥⎢ 𝐵𝑚 ⎥
(29)
⎢ 𝜐2 ⎥ ⎢−𝑅1 𝑆ℎ1 −𝑅1 𝐶ℎ1 −𝑅2 𝑆ℎ2 −𝑅2 𝐶ℎ2 ⎥⎢ 𝐶𝑚 ⎥
( ) ( ) ( ) ⎢M ⎥ ⎢−𝐿 𝐶 −𝐿1 𝑆ℎ1 −𝐿2 𝐶ℎ2 −𝐿2 𝑆ℎ2 ⎥⎦⎢⎣𝐷𝑚 ⎥⎦
𝑊𝑚 (𝑥) = 𝐴𝑚 cosh 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐵𝑚 sinh 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐶𝑚 cos 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 ⎣ 2 ⎦ ⎣ 1 ℎ1
( ) i.e.
+ 𝐷𝑚 sin 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 . (20)
𝐹 = 𝑅𝐶 (30)
4.4.2. Dynamic stiffness (DS) matrix
where
The formulation of dynamic stiffness for the first case is described [ ] ( )
below. Exactly same procedure is followed for the second case but is 𝑅𝑖 = 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝑟3𝑖𝑚 − 𝛼 2 𝑟𝑖𝑚 (2 − 𝜈) + 𝑟𝑖𝑚 𝐼2 𝜔2 , 𝐿𝑖 = 𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 𝑟3𝑖𝑚 − 𝛼 2 𝜈 (31)
not shown here for brevity.
with i = 1, 2.
Now, using the relations in Eq. (14) and the known displacement
Now, by using Eqs. (27) and (29) and eliminating the constant vector
w (in Eqs. (15) and (18)), the rotation 𝜑y , the shear force Vx , and the
C, the dynamic stiffness matrix K for the FGM plate element is obtained
bending moment Mxx are obtained as
as
( )
𝜙𝑦𝑚 = Φ𝑦𝑚 (𝑥) sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦 , 𝐹 = 𝐾𝛿, (32)
[ ( ) ( ) ( )
= − 𝐴𝑚 𝑟1𝑚 sinh 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐵𝑚 𝑟1𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑠ℎ 𝑟1𝑚 𝑥 + 𝐶𝑚 𝑟2𝑚 sinh 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 where
( )] ( )
+ 𝐷𝑚 𝑟2𝑚 cosh 𝑟2𝑚 𝑥 sin 𝛼𝑚 𝑦 (21)
𝐾 = 𝑅𝐴−1 . (33)
S. Kumar and P. Jana
The above relation in Eq. (33) represents the 4 × 4 dynamic stiffness
matrix which is symmetric in nature and contains six independent terms
svv , svm , smm , fvv , fvm , fmm that depicts the influence on the shear force
and moment due to an unit displacements applied on the “same” (s)
nodal line and on the “far” (f) nodal line [18,22]. Therefore, the K can
be written in matrix form as:
⎡ 𝑠𝑣𝑣
𝑠𝑣𝑚 𝑓𝑣𝑣 𝑓𝑣𝑚 ⎤
⎢ ⎥
𝑠 𝑠𝑚𝑚 −𝑓𝑣𝑚 𝑓𝑚𝑚 ⎥
𝑲 = ⎢ 𝑣𝑚 (34)
⎢ 𝑓𝑣𝑣 −𝑓𝑣𝑚 𝑠𝑣𝑣 −𝑠𝑣𝑚 ⎥
⎢𝑓
⎣ 𝑣𝑚 𝑓𝑚𝑚 −𝑠𝑣𝑚 𝑠𝑚𝑚 ⎥⎦
The mathematical details of these six independent terms of the dy-
namic stiffness matrix K are provided in Appendix B.
4.5. Assembly process of DS matrix and incorporation of boundary
conditions
In this DSM formulation, the dynamic stiffness (DS) matrix in
Eq. (34) is the essential requirement for computing the accurate natural
frequencies and mode shapes of the FGM plates under consideration.
Once the DS matrix of a single FGM plate element is developed then the
assembly process in DSM is very much similar to that of the conven-
tional FEM with the exception that there are line nodes in each strip for
the connection of DS plate elements instead of point nodes in FEM. A
pictorial representation of the assembly process of the global DS matrix
is shown in Fig. 5.
After the assembly process, the penalty method is applied to the
global dynamic stiffness matrix for handling all possible Levy-type
boundary conditions. This approach is mainly utilized to supress cer-
tain degree of freedom of the plate edges. And that is achieved by simply
adding a very large stiffness to the suitable term in the leading diagonal
of the assembled DS matrix. These edge conditions are applied at the
two sides x = 0 and x = b of the plate. To be specific, the following pro-
cedure is used to apply the simple support (S), clamped (C), and free (F)
edge conditions:
• Simply supported (S) edge: Wi is penalised.
• Clamped (C) edge: Wi and Φi are penalised.
• Free (F) edge: No penalty is applied.
where, i is the node that has to be suppressed or constrained.
The global DS matrix for the whole structure with the appropri-
ate constraints is used for the computation of the natural frequencies
of the FGM plate. The Wittrick and Williams (W-W) algorithm [19] is
employed for computing these natural frequencies. This algorithm ef-
ficiently solves transcendental eigenvalue problems by monitoring the
International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105
Fig. 5. A pictorial representation of the assembly pro-
cess of the global dynamic stiffness matrix.
strum sequence properties of the characteristic equation. As a result,
this algorithm confirms that no frequencies of the structures are missed
[18, 22–28]. The details of W-W algorithm [19] can be omitted here
as the same have been discussed in more than hundreds of published
works. In brief, the algorithm provides the number of natural frequen-
cies of the structures that remain below a randomly chosen trial fre-
quency in a computationally efficient manner. By choosing successive
trial frequencies one can bracket any number of natural frequencies to
any desired accuracy between a prescribed upper and lower frequency
limit. In this work, this W-W algorithm is utilized to compute the natural
frequencies of the FGM plates and the results are discussed below.
5. Results and discussions
The DSM methodology, as described above, has been implemented
in a MATLAB program to compute the natural frequencies and mode
shapes of the S-FGM and E-FGM plates. In this section, some of these
important frequency results are highlighted. The effects of different ge-
ometrical parameters and material property variation on the frequency
results of the FGM plates are also discussed. All the results presented
here, unless specified otherwise, consider the effect of rotary inertia. The
mechanical properties for the constituent materials used in this study are
adopted from literature [8–11,18] and shown in Table 1. However, for
validation purposes, some table considers different material property
and the same is duly mentioned.
In this section, some abbreviations are used to discuss the results ef-
fectively. For describing the Levy type edge conditions, the symbol ‘S’,
‘C’ and ‘F’ are used to denote ‘simply-supported’, ‘clamped’ and ‘free’
edges, respectively. As an illustration, SCSF stands for the boundary
conditions at four edges as simply-supported (S) at y = 0, clamped (C) at
x = 0, simply-supported (S) at y = a, and free (F) at x = b. The symbol ‘RI’
is used for representing ‘rotary inertia’. The letter ‘m’ and ‘n’ are used
to represent the types of modes for a particular frequency, in which ‘m’
denotes the number of half-sine waves along the ‘y’ direction and ‘n’
denotes the nth lowest natural frequency for a corresponding value of
‘m’.
This section begins with a comparative study of the DSM frequency
results with published literature values for the sigmoid and exponential
properties variation of the FGM plate. The comparison shows that the
DSM frequency results are highly accurate. Subsequently, results for a
square and rectangular S-FGM and E-FGM plates are reported using dif-
ferent tables. Subsequently, some graphs and tables are shown to rep-
resent the effect of various FGM plate design parameters on its natural
frequency results. Finally, DSM frequency results for stepped S-FGM and
E-FGM plates are discussed.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 2 √
Validation of nondimensional frequencies (𝜔̄ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑐 ∕𝐺𝑐 ) for a homogeneous isotropic SSSS plate for
h/a = 0.1 with and without taking rotary inertia into account. Repeated roots are not shown in this table.

Without RI With RI

% Difference
between without
a/b mn Present Ref. [22] Ref. [30] Present Ref. [22] Ref. [30] and with RI

1 1 1 0.09632 0.09632 0.0963 0.09554 0.09554 0.0955 0.82

1 2 0.24079 0.24079 0.2408 0.23599 0.23599 0.2360 2.03
2 2 0.38527 0.38527 0.3853 0.37319 0.37319 0.3732 3.24
1 3 0.48159 0.48159 0.4816 0.46293 0.46293 0.4629 4.03
2 3 0.62606 0.62606 0.6261 0.59506 0.59506 0.5951 5.21
1 4 0.81870 0.81870 0.8187 0.76684 0.76684 0.7668 6.76
3 3 0.86686 0.86686 0.8669 0.80904 0.80904 0.8090 7.11
2 4 0.96317 0.96318 0.9632 0.89256 0.89256 0.8926 7.91
3 4 1.20397 1.20397 1.2040 1.09650 1.09650 1.0965 9.80
1 5 1.25213 1.25213 1.2521 1.13650 1.13650 1.1365 10.17
2 5 1.39660 1.39660 1.3966 1.25494 1.25494 1.2549 11.29
4 4 1.54108 1.54108 1.5411 1.37117 1.37117 1.3716 12.39
3 5 1.63740 1.63740 1.6374 1.44747 1.44747 1.4457 13.12
√
𝟐 1 1 0.07224 0.07224 0.07224 0.07224 0.07180 0.07180 0.62
2 1 0.14448 0.14448 0.14448 0.14448 0.14273 0.14273 1.23
1 2 0.21671 0.21671 0.21671 0.21671 0.21281 0.21281 1.83
3 1 0.26487 0.26487 0.26487 0.26487 0.25908 0.25908 2.24
2 2 0.28895 0.28895 0.28895 0.28895 0.28208 0.28207 2.44
3 2 0.40935 0.40935 0.40935 0.40935 0.39575 0.39575 3.44
4 1 0.43343 0.43343 0.43343 0.43343 0.41823 0.41822 3.64
1 3 0.45751 0.45751 0.45751 0.45751 0.44062 0.44062 3.83
2 3 0.52975 0.52975 0.52974 0.52975 0.50730 0.50729 4.43
4 2 0.57791 0.57791 0.57790 0.57791 0.55134 0.55133 4.82
3 3 0.65014 0.65014 0.65014 0.65014 0.61680 0.61680 5.41
5 1 0.65014 0.65014 0.65014 0.65014 0.61680 0.61680 5.41
5 2 0.79462 0.79462 0.79462 0.79462 0.74563 0.74563 6.57
∗
As CPT is used here, the frequency results without the rotary inertia (RI) remain independent of h/a.

5.1. Comparison with published results Table 3 √

⌣
Validation of nondimensional frequencies (𝜔 = (𝜔𝑎2 ∕2𝜋) 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) for some ran-
In order to compare the DSM frequency results effectively with the domly chosen modes of the homogeneous isotropic plate with all possible Levy
type edge conditions for three aspect ratios (a/b = 0.5, 1, 2) with and without
published frequency results, the following five nondimensional forms of
taking account of rotary inertia (RI).
the natural frequency are used.
√ √ √ without with RI
𝜔̄ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑐 ∕𝐺𝑐 , 𝜔̃ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑐 , 𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 , BCs a/b Modes Source RI
√ ⌣ ( )√ h/a = 0.02 h/a = 0.01
𝜔̂ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑚 ∕𝐺𝑚 and 𝜔 = 𝜔𝑎2 ∕2𝜋 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 (35)
SSSS 0.5 1st Present 1.963495 1.961883 1.963092
Ref. [26] 1.963495 1.961883 1.963092
Here, Gc = Ec /(2(1 + 𝜈)) and Gm = Em /(2(1 + 𝜈)) refer to the shear mod-
Ref. [31] 1.963495 — —
uli of the homogeneous plate with ceramic and metallic constituents, SCSC 1 7th Present 22.314240 22.265016 22.301904
respectively. The following subsections present the comparison of DSM Ref. [26] 22.314240 22.265020 22.301900
results with the literature values. First, the special case of a homoge- Ref. [31] 22.314240 — —
neous isotropic plate is considered. Subsequently, comparison for S-FGM SSSC 2 4th Present 32.896865 32.869329 32.889974
Ref. [26] 32.896865 32.869320 32.889960
and E-FGM plates are discussed. Ref. [31] 32.896865 — —
SSSF 0.5 4th Present 5.908996 5.892135 5.904768
5.1.1. Isotropic plate with rotary inertia (RI) Ref. [26] 5.908996 5.892135 5.904767
Table 2 shows the comparison of the nondimensional natural fre- Ref. [31] 5.908996 — —
SCSF 1 3rd Present 6.637068 6.632316 6.635879
quency results based on CPT for√simply supported (SSSS) square and
Ref. [26] 6.637068 6.632315 6.635878
rectangular (aspect ratio = 𝑎∕𝑏 = 2) homogeneous isotropic plate with Ref. [31] 6.637068 — —
two published papers: one by using classical method in Reddy and Phan SFSF 2 8th Present 23.380270 23.357773 23.374640
[30] and another by using DSM in Boscolo and Banerjee [22]. As shown Ref. [26] 23.380270 23.357770 23.374640
Ref. [31] 23.380270 — —
in Table 2, present DSM results matches exactly with the existing liter-
ature. It is also observed that the natural frequency values reduce due ∗
As CPT is used here, the frequency results without the rotary inertia (RI) remain
to the incorporation of the rotary inertia and these differences becomes independent of h/a.
higher for higher frequency modes.
In Table √3, the validation of nondimensional frequencies
⌣
(𝜔 = (𝜔𝑎2 ∕2𝜋) 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) are shown for some randomly chosen modes spectral dynamic stiffness method and symplectic elasticity approach,
of both square and rectangular isotropic plates based on DSM approach respectively. Thus, the comparisons shown in Tables 2 and 3 establish
with and without taking the effect of rotary inertia. Six different that the DSM methodology is highly accurate and can be extended to
Levy type edge conditions are considered here. From this table, it can the frequency analysis of various FGM plates.
be observed that the present DSM results match up to five decimal
places with the published literature by Liu and Banerjee [26] and Lim 5.1.2. S-FGM plate
et al. [31] which are also based on classical plate theory. The results The comparison of DSM frequency results for S-FGM simply sup-
of Liu and Banerjee [26] and Lim et al. [31] are obtained by using ported (SSSS) square and rectangular plates with Jung et al. [14] is
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 4 √ and the effect becomes significantly higher for E-FGM plates. Secondly,
Comparison of DSM nondimensional frequencies (𝜔̃ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑐 ) of S-FGM the reference paper adopted the Rayleigh–Ritz method for their analysis
SSSS plate with the published values for h/a = 0.05. in which the trial functions considered may not be sufficient enough for
Aspect ratio Mode no. Source p=1 p=2 p=5 p = 10 higher frequency modes. To make these arguments strong, the DSM re-
sults (indicated with ∗ ) are also computed without taking PNS into the
1 1 Present 0.0114 0.0108 0.0102 0.0100
Ref. [14] 0.0113 0.0107 0.0102 0.0100
formulation. It can be seen that the reference paper’s lower frequency
0.5 1 Present 0.0283 0.0268 0.0254 0.0249 results are close to these results which are essentially incorrect.
Ref. [14] 0.0284 0.0268 0.0254 0.0250
2 Present 0.0452 0.0427 0.0405 0.0398 5.2. DSM results for square S-FGM and E-FGM plates
Ref. [14] 0.0452 0.0428 0.0406 0.0399
3 Present 0.0730 0.0690 0.0654 0.0643
Ref. [14] 0.0731 0.0692 0.0657 0.0646 This subsection along with the subsequent three subsections present
4 Present 0.0951 0.0899 0.0852 0.0837 new sets of DSM results for S-FGM and E-FGM plates. These results
Ref. [14] 0.0953 0.0902 0.0856 0.0842 can be treated as important scientific contributions of the present
work. For the sake of clarity and ease of comprehension, √ now on-
shown in wards, a single nondimensional frequency formula 𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐
√ Table 4. This table shows the nondimensional frequencies with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) is used for reporting these DSM results. In
(𝜔̃ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑐 ) for four different values of sigmoid volume fraction in-
dex namely (p = 1, 2, 5, 10) for a square and a rectangular S-FGM plate. this subsection, a square FGM plate with all six Levy type boundary
The comparison shows that the DSM results, for a thickness-to-side ratio conditions is considered. Results for sigmoid and exponential function
(h/a) of 0.05, are in excellent agreement with the published results. property variations are reported one after another. In the following ta-
bles, frequency results without bracket are computed after considering
the effect of rotary inertia whereas the results within the bracket are
5.1.3. E-FGM plate
computed without considering the effect of rotary inertia.
Table 5 shows the comparison of DSM results for E-FGM simply sup-
Table 7 shows the first six DSM frequencies for the square S-FGM
ported (SSSS) plate with the published results in Reddy and Kant [32].
plate for different sigmoid volume fraction indices (p) and for all Levy
This reference paper uses a different form of the exponential function
𝑧 1 type edge conditions for h/a = 0.05. Results shown within brackets are
for the property variation as 𝑃 (𝑧) = 𝑃𝑚 𝑒𝛽[( ∕ℎ)+( ∕2)] , Pc = Pm e𝛽 , 𝛽 ≠ 0, without taking the rotary inertia into account. It is observed from the
where 𝛽 is index of the exponential variation. For the comparison pur- Table 8 that the nondimensional frequencies decrease with the increase
poses, above exponential form with the material properties as given in in the sigmoid volume fraction index (p). As p increases the overall stiff-
the reference have been used to compute the results. Table 5 shows re- ness of the S-FGM plate decrease as it corresponds to having more metal-
sults for three different aspect ratios of the FGM plate which are in very lic constituent which has relatively less stiffness compare to ceramic.
good agreement with each other. From the table, it is also interesting to And, this decrease in stiffness reduces the natural frequencies of the
note that the reference paper does not include some of the frequencies plate.
of the plate. This may be due to the use of the power series method in In Table 7, the frequency results for p = 0 correspond to the homo-
frequency calculation. However, as discussed earlier, the present DSM geneous isotropic plate with the average property of the constituents of
approach utilises the Writtrick-Williams algorithm in which strum se- the S-FGM plate and p = ∞ correspond to a bi-material plate with ce-
quence property is used for the frequency computation and for that rea- ramic constituents (Al2 03 ) at the top-half and metallic constituents (Al)
son this approach does not miss any frequency within a given frequency at the bottom half of the S-FGM plate. In MATLAB computation, p = ∞
range. This is one major advantage of using this DSM for the frequency is unattainable. So, a sufficiently large value of p = 1010 is used, in place
calculation of the plate structure. of p = ∞, for the computational purpose which provides the prescribed
With the comparison presented in above three subsections, it can be precision for the frequency results.
concluded that the present method is highly accurate for the frequency The first six DSM frequencies for the square E-FGM plate for all six
analysis of thin S-FGM and E-FGM plates. The DSM results match al- Levy type edge conditions with h/a = 0.05 are shown in Table 8. Results
most exactly with the corresponding results of both isotropic and FGM shown within the brackets are without considering the rotary inertia in
plates wherever available. Additionally, as strum sequence property of the calculation. Note that the results with 𝛿 = 0 corresponds to a homo-
Writtrick-Williams algorithm is used in the frequency computation, no geneous isotropic plate. From Tables 7 and 8, it is important to note that
frequencies are missed between a given frequency range of the plate. consideration of rotary inertia reduces the nondimensional frequencies
Therefore, DSM can be considered as a very reliable and effective solu- of the FGM plate irrespective of the boundary conditions and material
tion technique for frequency computation of FGM plates. properties variation. This means that if one considers rotary inertia then
it provides better results in the frequency analysis of the FGM plates.
5.1.4. Comparison with published work that does not consider PNS Irrespective of the material properties variations, it has also been
In Table 6, the DSM frequency results of E-FGM plates are compared noticed from Tables 7 and 8 that the larger value of nondimensional
with the results reported in Chakarverty and Pradhan [13]. In this ref- frequency is due to the SCSC boundary condition whereas the lower
erence, the form of the exponential function used is exactly same as it is value of nondimensional frequency corresponds to the SFSF edge con-
adopted in this paper (see Eq. (2)). The material properties taken for this dition. This is because of the fact that addition of more constraints at
comparison are same as in [13]. The first seven frequencies for SCSC and the edges increases the stiffness of the plate thereby frequency is more
SSSS edges conditions are shown in Table 6. Note that the special case and the relaxation of constraints reduces the stiffness thereby producing
𝛿 = 0 is a homogeneous isotropic plate and the DSM frequency results lower frequency values.
matches exactly with the closed form results reported by Leissa [33]. Mode shapes for two selected square FGM plates are shown in Fig. 6.
From Table 6, it can be seen that the reported frequency results in Mode shape for 9th mode (m = 4, n = 1) with SCSC edge conditions is
Chakarverty and Pradhan [13] for E-FGM plates are insufficiently ac- shown in Fig. 6(a) whereas Fig. 6(b) shows the 9th mode (m = 3 n = 2)
curate. The error in first frequency is around 11.8% and the error be- for the SFSF plate. Note that, for a particular edge condition, these mode
comes as high as 58.12% in the higher frequency modes. The funda- shapes do not change due to the different material properties variations
mental reasons of this inaccuracy are two folds. Firstly, the reference (e.g. S-FGM or E-FGM plates) including the special case of the homo-
paper [13] used CPT with geometric mid-plane as the reference plane geneous isotropic plate. Only the nondimensional frequency of these
and does not utilise the concept of physical neutral surface (PNS). Note modes will be different when different variations of the material prop-
that the effect of physical neutral surface is nil for isotropic plate (𝛿 = 0) erties are considered.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 5 √
Comparison of DSM nondimensional frequencies (𝜔̂ = 𝜔ℎ 𝜌𝑚 ∕𝐺𝑚 ) for E-FGM SSSS plate
with available literature values [32] for h/a = 0.01.

a/b = 1.0 a/b = 2.0 a/b = 5.0

mn Present Ref. [32] mn Present Ref. [32] mn Present Ref. [32]

1 1 0.00079 0.00079 1 1 0.00197 0.00197 1 1 0.01025 0.01020

1 2 0.00197 0.00197 2 1 0.00316 0.00315 2 1 0.01144 0.01140
2 1 0.00197 0.00197 3 1 0.00513 — 3 1 0.01341 —
2 2 0.00316 0.00315 1 2 0.00671 0.00670 4 1 0.01616 —
3 1 0.00395 — 2 2 0.00789 0.00790 5 1 0.01971 —
1 3 0.00395 0.00394 4 1 0.00789 — 1 2 0.03975 0.03930
3 2 0.00513 — 3 2 0.00986 — 2 2 0.04093 0.04050
2 3 0.00513 0.00512 5 1 0.01144 — 3 2 0.04289 —
1 4 0.00671 — 4 2 0.01262 — 4 2 0.04564 —
4 1 0.00671 — 1 3 0.01459 0.01450 5 2 0.04917 —
3 3 0.00710 0.00709 2 3 0.01577 0.01570 1 3 0.08865 0.08660
2 4 0.00789 — 5 2 0.01616 — 2 3 0.08982 0.08770
4 2 0.00789 — 3 3 0.01774 0.01770 3 3 0.09176 0.08950

Table 6 √
Comparison of DSM nondimensional frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) for square E-FGM plate with Chakarverty and Prad-
han [13] for SCSC and SSSS edge conditions.

SCSC

E-FGM parameter Sources 𝝎∗𝟏 𝝎∗2 𝝎∗3 𝝎∗4 𝝎∗5 𝝎∗6 𝝎∗7

𝜹=0 Present 28.9509 54.7431 69.3270 94.5853 102.2162 129.0955 140.2045

Ref. [33] 28.9509 54.7431 69.3270 94.5853 102.2162 129.0955 140.2045
Ref. [13] 28.9515 54.7418 69.3261 94.5834 102.2136 129.0915 141.3810
𝑬
𝜹 = − 12 𝐥𝐨𝐠( 𝑬 𝒄 ) Present 20.3947 38.5643 48.8381 66.6315 72.0072 90.9426 98.7685
𝒎
Ref. [13] 22.7996 43.2224 54.6117 74.5803 81.6794 106.3337 128.6259
%Err. 11.79 12.08 11.82 11.93 13.43 16.92 30.23
DSM∗ 22.7992∗ 43.1110∗ 54.5960∗ 74.4873∗ 80.4968∗ 101.6646∗ 110.4131∗
SSSS

𝜹=0 Present 19.7392 49.3480 49.3480 78.9568 98.6960 98.6960 128.3049

Ref. [33] 19.7392 49.3480 49.3480 78.9568 98.6960 98.6960 128.3049
Ref. [13] 19.7392 49.3490 49.3490 79.4007 100.1729 100.1868 130.3895
𝑬
𝜹 = − 12 𝐥𝐨𝐠( 𝑬 𝒄 ) Present 13.9055 34.7637 34.7637 55.6219 69.5274 69.5274 90.3856
𝒎
Ref. [13] 15.5462 38.9923 38.9923 62.5293 78.8931 109.9367 132.8760
%Err. 11.80 12.16 12.16 12.42 13.47 58.12 47.01
DSM∗ 15.5449∗ 38.8623∗ 38.8623∗ 62.1797∗ 77.7246∗ 77.7246∗ 101.0420∗

DSM∗ indicates the DSM results without considering the concept of physical neutral surface (PNS).

Fig. 6. Mode shapes of square FGM plate with two edge conditions: (a) SCSC; 9th mode (m = 4, n = 1) and (b) SFSF; 9th mode (m = 3, n = 2).
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 7 √
Nondimensional natural frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all the possible Levy type edge
conditions of square S-FGM plate with and without taking account of rotary inertia for h/a = 0.05.

BCs mn p=0 p = 0.2 p = 0.5 p = 1.0 p = 2.0 p = 5.0 p = 10.0 p=∞

SCSC 11 24.0405 23.7677 23.0690 22.0351 20.8359 19.7593 19.4295 19.2697

(24.0756)a (23.8225) (23.1237) (22.0894) (20.8894) (19.8118) (19.4816) (19.3217)
21 45.3703 44.8057 43.4848 41.5308 39.2651 37.2321 36.6093 36.3078
(45.5245) (45.0458) (43.7245) (41.7688) (39.4997) (37.4621) (36.8377) (36.5353)
12 57.4402 56.7156 55.0428 52.5684 49.6996 47.1255 46.3369 45.9552
(57.6525) (57.0464) (55.3731) (52.8963) (50.0226) (47.4423) (46.6515) (46.2686)
22 78.2188 77.1483 74.8666 71.4925 67.5820 64.0744 63.0002 62.4802
(78.6574) (77.8304) (75.5474) (72.1683) (68.2476) (64.7272) (63.6482) (63.1259)
31 84.4422 83.2377 80.7723 77.1270 72.9031 69.1152 67.9552 67.3937
(85.0033) (84.1095) (81.6424) (77.9907) (73.7537) (69.9492) (68.7832) (68.2187)
13 106.5872 105.0331 101.9196 97.3165 91.9832 87.2011 85.7367 85.0279
(107.3562) (106.2274) (103.1115) (98.4996) (93.1484) (88.3434) (86.8709) (86.1579)
SCSS 11 19.6213 19.4145 18.8439 17.9994 17.0199 16.1405 15.8711 15.7406
(19.6643) (19.4576) (18.8869) (18.0421) (17.0619) (16.1818) (15.9121) (15.7815)
21 42.7491 42.2973 41.0505 39.2060 37.0673 35.1481 34.5602 34.2756
(42.9725) (42.5206) (41.2734) (39.4273) (37.2854) (35.3620) (34.7726) (34.4872)
12 48.5053 47.9925 46.5774 44.4841 42.0571 39.8792 39.2121 38.8891
(48.7705) (48.2577) (46.8422) (44.7470) (42.3161) (40.1332) (39.4643) (39.1404)
22 71.0270 70.2739 68.1960 65.1232 61.5618 58.3673 57.3889 56.9153
(71.6296) (70.8765) (68.7976) (65.7204) (62.1500) (58.9440) (57.9615) (57.4858)
31 82.5346 81.6579 79.2394 75.6635 71.5199 67.8041 66.6661 66.1153
(83.3846) (82.5079) (80.0878) (76.5056) (72.3493) (68.6172) (67.4735) (66.9197)
13 93.1585 92.1685 89.4376 85.3999 80.7215 76.5262 75.2415 74.6197
(94.1608) (93.1708) (90.4379) (86.3927) (81.6993) (77.4849) (76.1934) (75.5680)
SSSS 11 16.3815 16.2089 15.7326 15.0276 14.2099 13.4758 13.2509 13.1420
(16.4152) (16.2426) (15.7662) (14.2427) (13.5081) (13.5081) (13.2829) (13.1739)
12 40.8286 40.3971 39.2064 37.4449 35.4024 33.5696 33.0081 32.7363
(41.0379) (40.6065) (39.4154) (35.6069) (33.7701) (33.7701) (33.2072) (32.9347)
21 40.8286 40.3971 39.2064 37.4449 35.4024 33.5696 33.0081 32.7363
(41.0379) (40.6065) (39.4154) (35.6069) (33.7701) (33.7701) (33.2072) (32.9347)
22 65.1272 64.4369 62.5322 59.7153 56.4503 53.5216 52.6246 52.1904
(65.6607) (64.9704) (63.0646) (56.9710) (54.0322) (54.0322) (53.1316) (52.6955)
13 81.2449 80.3820 78.0014 74.4816 70.4030 66.7453 65.6252 65.0830
(82.0759) (81.2129) (78.8308) (71.2137) (67.5403) (67.5403) (66.4145) (65.8694)
31 81.2449 80.3820 78.0014 74.4816 70.4030 66.7453 65.6252 65.0830
(82.0759) (81.2129) (78.8308) (71.2137) (67.5403) (67.5403) (66.4145) (65.8694)
SCSF 11 10.5359 10.4249 10.1187 9.6656 9.1399 8.6679 8.5233 8.4533
(10.5508) (10.4399) (10.1337) (9.6804) (9.1545) (8.6823) (8.5376) (8.4675)
12 27.3827 27.0936 26.2957 25.1152 23.7463 22.5178 22.1414 21.9591
(27.4970) (27.2079) (26.4098) (25.2286) (23.8580) (22.6273) (22.2501) (22.0675)
21 34.5251 34.1605 33.1542 31.6655 29.9391 28.3899 27.9152 27.6854
(34.6794) (34.3148) (33.3083) (31.8185) (30.0899) (28.5377) (28.0620) (27.8317)
22 52.0423 51.4913 49.9710 47.7224 45.1156 42.7770 42.0607 41.7139
(52.4033) (51.8523) (50.3314) (48.0802) (45.4681) (43.1227) (42.4039) (42.0559)
13 59.6700 59.0370 57.2906 54.7080 51.7150 49.0306 48.2084 47.8104
(60.2060) (59.5730) (57.8256) (55.2392) (52.2382) (49.5435) (48.7177) (48.3179)
31 74.6368 73.8446 71.6589 68.4270 64.6817 61.3228 60.2941 59.7961
(75.3527) (74.5604) (72.3734) (69.1362) (65.3803) (62.0077) (60.9741) (60.4737)
SSSF 11 9.7040 9.6018 9.3198 8.9025 8.4183 7.9836 7.8504 7.7860
(9.7169) (9.6147) (9.3327) (8.9153) (8.4309) (7.9960) (7.8627) (7.7982)
12 22.9969 22.7542 22.0844 21.0934 19.9441 18.9126 18.5966 18.4436
(23.0822) (22.8396) (22.1696) (21.1780) (20.0275) (18.9944) (18.6778) (18.5245)
21 34.1083 33.7481 32.7540 31.2833 29.5779 28.0473 27.5784 27.3514
(34.2592) (33.8990) (32.9047) (31.4329) (29.7253) (28.1919) (27.7220) (27.4945)
22 48.7951 48.2786 46.8536 44.7458 42.3022 40.1099 39.4383 39.1132
(49.1190) (48.6026) (47.1770) (45.0668) (42.6185) (40.4201) (39.7463) (39.4201)
13 51.0188 50.4779 48.9856 46.7787 44.2208 41.9264 41.2236 40.8835
(51.4434) (50.9026) (49.4095) (47.1995) (44.6353) (42.3328) (41.6272) (41.2855)
31 74.3777 73.5883 71.4102 68.1897 64.4575 61.1102 60.0851 59.5889
(75.0888) (74.2993) (72.1199) (68.8942) (65.1513) (61.7906) (60.7606) (60.2619)
SFSF 11 8.0012 7.9169 7.6845 7.3405 6.9413 6.5830 6.4732 6.4200
(8.0095) (7.9253) (7.6928) (7.3487) (6.9495) (6.5910) (6.4811) (6.4280)
12 13.3876 13.2465 12.8571 12.2809 11.6125 11.0126 10.8287 10.7397
(13.4177) (13.2766) (12.8872) (12.3108) (11.6420) (11.0414) (10.8574) (10.7683)
13 30.3588 30.0377 29.1516 27.8408 26.3212 24.9577 24.5400 24.3378
(30.5411) (30.2200) (29.3336) (28.0216) (26.4992) (25.1323) (24.7134) (24.5106)
21 32.2530 31.9125 30.9727 29.5823 27.9699 26.5229 26.0796 25.8650
(32.3867) (32.0462) (31.1062) (29.7149) (28.1006) (26.6510) (26.2068) (25.9917)
22 38.6620 38.2533 37.1256 35.4573 33.5229 31.7872 31.2555 30.9980
(38.8676) (38.4589) (37.3308) (35.6611) (33.7237) (31.9841) (31.4510) (31.1929)
23 58.3123 57.6938 55.9874 53.4639 50.5393 47.9161 47.1127 46.7238
(58.8277) (58.2091) (56.5017) (53.9745) (51.0422) (48.4093) (47.6024) (47.2117)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 8 √
Nondimensional natural frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all Levy type edge con-
ditions of square E-FGM plates with and without taking account of rotary inertia for h/a = 0.05.

BCs Parameter 𝛿 𝝎∗𝟏 𝝎∗𝟐 𝝎∗𝟑 𝝎∗𝟒 𝝎∗𝟓 𝝎∗𝟔

SCSC (m n) (1 1) (2 1) (1 2) (2 2) (3 1 ) (1 3)
𝛿=0 28.8850 54.4543 68.9292 93.7651 101.1678 127.6593
(28.9509)a (54.7431) (69.3270) (94.5853) (102.2162) (129.0955)
𝛿 = −(1/2)log(Ec /Em ) 20.3299 38.3112 48.4921 65.9393 71.1306 89.7467
(20.3823) (38.5408) (48.8083) (66.5909) (71.9633) (90.8871)
SCSS (m n) (1 1) (2 1) (1 2) (2 2) (3 1 ) (1 3)
𝛿=0 23.5946 51.4057 58.3274 85.4098 99.2476 112.0228
(23.6463) (51.6743) (58.6464) (86.1345) (100.2698) (113.2281)
𝛿 = −(1/2)log(Ec /Em ) 16.6065 36.1667 41.0353 60.0655 69.7811 78.7588
(16.6477) (36.3802) (41.2888) (60.6412) (70.5929) (79.7160)
SSSS (m n) (1 1) (2 1) (1 2) (2 2) (3 1 ) (1 3)
𝛿=0 19.6987 49.0963 49.0963 78.3153 97.6968 97.6968
(19.7392) (49.3480) (49.3480) (78.9568) (98.6960) (98.6960)
𝛿 = −(1/2)log(Ec /Em ) 13.8648 34.5424 34.5424 55.0783 68.6913 68.6913
(13.8970) (34.7425) (34.7425) (55.5880) (69.4850) (69.4850)
SCSF (m n) (1 1) (2 1) (1 2) (2 2) (1 3) (3 1)
𝛿=0 12.6694 32.9276 41.5163 62.5807 71.7530 89.7505
(12.6874) (33.0651) (41.7019) (63.0148) (72.3976) (90.6114)
𝛿 = −(1/2)log(Ec /Em ) 8.9180 23.1695 29.2118 44.0193 50.4580 63.1093
(8.9323) (23.2788) (29.3594) (44.3643) (50.9701) (63.7931)
SFSS (m n) (1 1) (2 1) (1 2) (2 2) (1 3) (3 1)
𝛿=0 11.6690 27.6537 41.0152 58.6760 61.3500 89.4390
(11.6845) (27.7563) (41.1967) (59.0655) (61.8606) (90.2941)
𝛿 = −(1/2)log(Ec /Em ) 8.2139 19.4597 28.8594 41.2743 43.1460 62.8905
(8.2263) (19.5413) (29.0037) (41.5839) (43.5517) (63.5697)
SFSF (m n) (1 1) (1 2) (1 3) (2 1) (2 2) (2 3)
𝛿=0 9.6214 16.0985 36.5064 38.7841 46.4909 70.1204
(9.6314) (16.1348) (36.7256) (38.9450) (46.7381) (70.7401)
𝛿 = −(1/2)log(Ec /Em ) 6.7728 11.3305 25.6817 27.2905 32.7085 49.3108
(6.7808) (11.3594) (25.8560) (27.4184) (32.9051) (49.8032)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.

5.3. DSM results for rectangular S-FGM and E-FGM plates
DSM natural frequencies for rectangular plates with S-FGM and E-
FGM material properties variation are reported in this subsection. All
six Levy type edge conditions are considered. Table 9 represents the
fundamental frequency for three aspect ratios and eight sigmoid volume
fraction indices of rectangular S-FGM plate. The results shown within
brackets correspond to the results without considering the rotary inertia
(RI). It has been noticed from Table 9 that the fundamental frequency
of rectangular S-FGM plate for a particular aspect ratio decreases with
the increase in p. This trend is similar to that of a square plate (refer to
the discussion in Section 5.2). The DSM results for first six modes and
three aspect ratios of the E-FGM rectangular plates with all Levy type
boundary conditions are shown in Table 10.
From Tables 9 and 10 for the rectangular plates, it can be observed
that the nondimensional fundamental frequencies increase with increase
in aspect ratio for five set of Levy type edge conditions except the SFSF
edge condition. This increase of frequency for these boundary condi-
tions is attributed to the increase of plate stiffness as the plate become
longer. However, because of the free edges in SFSF plate, the plate be-
comes weaker as the length of the plate increases. This, in turn, results
in decrease of frequency as the aspect ratio of the SFSF plate increases.
Fig. 7(a) and (b) show the mode shapes of rectangular FGM plate of
aspect ratio 0.5 for 3rd mode (m = 1, n = 3) of SSSS edge conditions and
for 6th mode (m = 2 n = 2) for SFSS edge conditions. As discussed earlier,
these mode shapes remain unchanged due to different variations of the
material properties including the homogeneous isotropic plate.
From Tables 7 to 10, for both square and rectangular plates, it is ev-
ident that the difference in the frequency results with consideration of
rotary inertia depends on the edge conditions and the thickness of FGM
plate. The influence of rotary inertia is more prominent in clamped edges
(e.g. SCSC edge condition) in comparison to the free edges (e.g. SFSF
edge condition). With rotary inertia, the nondimensional frequency has
a decreasing tendency with the increase of the thickness of the plate.
However, as we consider CPT for our analysis, the nondimensional fre-
quencies remain unchanged due to any variation of the plate thickness
if rotary inertia is not taken into consideration.
5.4. The influence of Erat and 𝝆rat on the DSM results
The influences of Young’s modulus ratio Erat = Ec /Em and √ density
ratio 𝜌rat = 𝜌c /𝜌m on nondimensional frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 )
of these S-FGM and E-FGM plates are highlighted in this subsection.
Fig. 8(a) shows the variation of first five nondimensional frequencies of
square SFSF S-FGM (p = 2) plates with the variation of Young’s modulus
ratio Erat , keeping the density ratio 𝜌rat = 2. The figure shows the fre-
quencies are decreasing with increase in Erat . This decrease in frequency
is because of the reduction of stiffness with the increase in Erat values as
it introduces more metallic constituents in the FGM plate. In the similar
manner, Fig. 8(b) represents the variation between the first five nondi-
mensional DSM frequencies with the variation of 𝜌rat keeping Erat = 2. It
is seen from Fig. 8(b) that the frequencies are increasing with increase
in 𝜌rat . This increase in nondimensional frequency with increase in 𝜌rat
is because of the reduction of inertia due to more presence of metallic
constituents in the FGM plate. Similar type of behaviour has also been
obtained in E-FGM plates. However, those plots are not shown here, for
brevity.
The variation of DSM fundamental (first) nondimensional frequency
of the SCSF S-FGM plate with various density ratios (𝜌rat ) for constant
Erat = 1 and Erat = 2 has been shown in Fig. 9(a) and (b), respectively, for
different sigmoid volume fraction indices (p). Fig. 9(a) depicts that for
every single value of 𝜌rat has same fundamental frequency for different
values of p. This happens because for Erat = 1, the S-FGM plate becomes
homogeneous isotropic with constant bending rigidity irrespective of
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 9 √
DSM nondimensional fundamental frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all Levy type edge
conditions of rectangular S-FGM plate with and without taking account of rotary inertia (RI) for h/a = 0.05.

BCS a/b p=0 p = 0.2 p = 0.5 p = 1.0 p = 2.0 p = 5.0 p = 10.0 p=∞

SCSC 0.5 11.3211 11.2014 10.8712 10.3827 9.8163 9.3080 9.1523 9.0769
(11.3811)a (11.2615) (10.9311) (10.4422) (9.8749) (9.3655) (9.2094) (9.1338)
1.5 46.7785 46.2859 44.9259 42.9134 40.5789 38.4831 37.8409 37.5300
(46.8592) (46.3665) (45.0065) (42.9934) (40.6577) (38.5604) (37.9177) (37.6065)
2.0 79.0995 78.2666 75.9675 72.5650 68.6180 65.0746 63.9888 63.4630
(79.2205) (78.3876) (76.0883) (72.6850) (68.7363) (65.1906) (64.1040) (63.5778)
SCSS 0.5 10.6873 10.5743 10.2626 9.8015 9.2668 8.7870 8.6401 8.5689
(10.7431) (10.6302) (10.3184) (9.8568) (9.8568) (8.8405) (8.6932) (8.6218)
1.5 35.3292 34.9365 33.9101 32.3912 30.6292 29.0474 28.5627 28.3280
(35.3639) (34.9944) (33.9679) (32.4486) (30.6858) (29.1029) (28.6178) (28.3829)
2.0 57.5693 56.9631 55.2900 52.8138 49.9413 47.3625 46.5722 46.1896
(57.6525) (57.0430) (55.3697) (52.8930) (50.0194) (47.4391) (46.6483) (46.2686)
SSSS 0.5 10.2072 10.0993 9.8016 9.3612 8.8506 8.3924 8.2520 8.1841
(10.2595) (10.1516) (9.8538) (9.4138) (8.9017) (8.4425) (8.3018) (8.2337)
1.5 26.6351 26.3547 25.5805 24.4349 23.1058 21.9127 21.5471 21.3701
(26.6747) (26.3942) (25.6200) (24.4741) (23.1445) (21.9506) (21.5847) (21.4075)
2.0 40.9853 40.9853 39.3628 37.6002 35.5554 33.7197 33.1571 32.8848
(41.0379) (40.6065) (39.4154) (37.6524) (35.6069) (33.7831) (33.2072) (32.9347)
SCSF 0.5 8.6313 8.5401 8.2885 7.9164 7.4848 7.0975 6.9788 6.9214
(8.6699) (8.5787) (8.3271) (7.9546) (7.5225) (7.1344) (7.0155) (6.9579)
1.5 13.9773 13.8302 13.4242 12.8233 12.1262 11.5003 11.3085 11.2156
(13.9897) (13.8426) (13.4366) (12.8356) (12.1382) (11.5121) (11.3202) (11.2273)
2.0 18.9601 18.7606 18.2100 17.3950 16.4494 15.6005 15.3403 15.2144
(18.9737) (18.7742) (18.2235) (17.4084) (16.4627) (15.6135) (15.3532) (15.2270)
SSSF 0.5 8.5271 8.4370 8.1885 7.8208 7.3945 7.0118 6.8946 6.8379
(8.5648) (8.4748) (8.2262) (7.8582) (7.4313) (7.0480) (6.9305) (6.8736)
1.5 11.3935 11.2736 10.9427 10.4529 9.8847 9.3745 9.2182 9.1425
(11.4022) (11.2823) (10.9514) (10.4615) (9.8939) (9.3829) (9.2265) (9.2265)
2.0 13.4102 13.2691 12.8797 12.3033 11.6346 11.0342 10.8502 10.7611
(13.4178) (13.2767) (12.8873) (12.3108) (11.6420) (11.0415) (10.8574) (10.8574)
SFSF 0.5 8.0632 7.9781 7.7432 7.3956 6.9925 6.6307 6.5199 6.4662
(8.0967) (8.0116) (7.7766) (7.4287) (7.0251) (6.6628) (6.5517) (6.4979)
1.5 7.9449 7.8614 7.6307 7.2892 6.8931 6.5374 6.4284 6.3756
(7.9486) (7.8650) (7.6343) (7.2929) (6.8967) (6.5409) (6.4319) (6.3791)
2.0 7.9085 7.8254 7.5958 7.2559 6.8617 6.5077 6.3992 6.3466
(7.9106) (7.8274) (7.5978) (7.2580) (6.8637) (6.5096) (6.4011) (6.3486)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.

Fig. 7. Mode shapes of rectangular FGM plate (aspect ratio 0.5) with two different edge conditions: (a) SSSS; 3rd mode (m = 1 n = 3) and (b) SFSS; 6th mode (m = 2
n = 2).
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 10 √
Nondimensional natural frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all Levy type edge conditions of rect-
angular E-FGM plate with and without taking account of rotary inertia (RI) for h/a = 0.05.

SCSC SCSS

a/b = 0.5 a/b = 1.5 a/b = 2.0 a/b = 0.5 a/b = 1.5 a/b = 2.0
mn 𝜔∗ mn 𝜔∗ mn 𝜔∗ mn 𝜔∗ mn 𝜔∗ mn 𝜔∗

11 9.5778 11 39.5936 11 66.9519 11 9.0417 11 29.8855 11 48.7287

(9.6352)a (39.6707) (67.0677) (9.0951) (29.9408) (48.8083)
12 16.4848 21 55.4151 21 81.3195 12 15.0164 21 48.4175 12 66.4262
(16.6477) (55.6068) (81.5291) (15.1603) (48.5803) (66.5909)
13 26.8107 31 86.2002 31 109.6418 13 24.4102 31 81.3752 13 98.3246
(27.2417) (86.7167) (110.0800) (24.7899) (81.8555) (98.7082)
22 29.4035 12 102.3726 12 153.2448 22 29.1656 12 84.7147 22 144.6669
(29.9823) (102.9568) (154.1631) (29.7380) (85.1845) (145.5210)
14 35.5480 22 118.8849 22 177.9092 14 34.7000 22 103.2108 41 145.9371
(36.3802) (119.7634) (178.9208) (35.5051) (103.9397) (146.7140)
23 40.3017 41 131.8883 41 193.9684 23 37.0141 41 128.3965 32 164.1411
(41.2888) (133.1475) (195.2332) (37.8934) (129.6124) (165.1552)
SSSS SCSF
11 8.6356 11 22.5448 11 34.6921 11 7.3030 11 11.8318 11 16.0501
(8.6856) (22.5826) (34.7425) (7.3399) (11.8435) (16.0628)
12 13.7696 21 43.2886 12 55.4592 12 11.0048 21 31.8151 21 35.6719
(13.8970) (43.4281) (55.5880) (11.0911) (31.8943) (35.7291)
13 22.2490 31 69.1289 13 89.9912 13 17.9197 12 42.7784 12 69.3320
(22.5690) (69.4850) (90.3305) (18.1572) (42.9585) (69.5421)
22 28.9645 12 77.7203 22 117.5454 21 27.5186 22 64.6328 22 69.9625
(29.5078) (78.1706) (118.1245) (28.0384) (64.9871) (70.2447)
14 33.9621 22 89.7300 41 138.1695 14 27.9911 31 65.7266 31 92.6780
(34.7425) (90.3305) (138.9699) (28.5686) (66.0587) (93.1153)
23 33.9621 41 123.9262 32 138.1695 22 31.0925 13 99.0434 13 116.8474
(34.7425) (125.0730) (138.9700) (31.7565) (99.8197) (117.4376)
SSSF SFSF
11 7.2148 11 9.6447 11 11.3521 11 6.8226 11 6.7257 11 6.6951
(7.2509) (9.6530) (11.3594) (6.8546) (6.7292) (6.6971)
12 10.3186 12 30.6024 21 32.8556 12 8.1771 12 15.1915 21 19.3437
(10.3960) (30.6762) (32.9051) (8.2263) (15.2206) (19.3764)
13 16.4232 13 33.5711 12 52.8201 13 12.3277 13 27.2042 12 27.0912
(16.6298) (33.6929) (53.0018) (12.4508) (27.2610) (27.1231)
21 25.6247 14 57.0768 31 67.4157 14 19.2206 14 38.4798 31 45.3221
(26.1387) (57.3636) (67.6154) (19.5413) (38.6113) (45.4375)
14 27.4810 21 64.9336 22 77.8388 21 27.0871 21 46.0326 22 61.2892
(27.9993) (65.2583) (78.1652) (27.5896) (46.3197) (61.4512)
22 30.6959 22 86.9295 13 115.3118 22 28.4389 22 61.4037 13 73.8214
(31.3462) (87.6965) (115.9509) (29.0037) (61.6914) (74.2678)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.

√
Fig. 8. Plot between the first five DSM nondimensional frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) of the square SFSF S-FGM (p = 2) plates (a) with Erat for constant 𝜌rat = 2 and
(b) with 𝜌rat for constant Erat = 2.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

√
Fig. 9. Plot between the DSM fundamental (first) frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) of the square SCSF S-FGM plates (a) with 𝜌rat for Erat = 1 and (b) with 𝜌rat for
Erat = 2 for different sigmoid volume fraction index (p).

any p value. Fig. 9(b) shows increase in frequency with the increase of
the 𝜌rat for every individual values of p. It can also be observed from this
figure that with increase in p the frequency decreases for a particular𝜌rat .
The physical explanation of these two contrasting observations are due
to the reduction in mass and increase in stiffness, respectively (refer to
the discussion in the above paragraph).

5.5. Analysis of stepped thickness FGM plates

In this subsection, the vibration characteristics of stepped thickness

S-FGM and E-FGM plates are investigated by using the dynamic stiff-
ness method. A schematic representation of the stepped thickness (or
stiffened) FGM plate considered in this study is shown in Fig. 10. The
stepped FGM plate is analysed by utilizing one of the special feature of
the DSM i.e. the assembly process where the individual dynamic stiff-
ness matrices of plate elements are assembled to form the global dy-
namic stiffness matrix of the overall plate structure (refer to the detail
discussion of the assembly process in Section 4.5). With this approach, a
fairly complex plate structure as assemblies of dissimilar plate elements
can be analysed which is otherwise very difficult to study using any
conventional classical method.
Earlier, Guo et al. [34] studied the vibration behaviour of a homo-
geneous isotropic stepped thickness plate as shown in Fig. 10 by us-
Fig. 10. Schematic representation of the stepped thickness (or stiffened) FGM
plate considered in this study.
ing the finite strip method. Later, Boscolo and Banerjee [22] analysed
the same isotropic plate by using the dynamic stiffness method. In the
present work, this dynamic stiffness method is further extended to anal-
yse stepped S-FGM and E-FGM plates with that same geometrical con-
figurations.
Before discussing the results of the stepped FGM plate, a compara-
tive study of the present DSM results with the available literature results
for isotropic plate is presented in Table 11. The table shows frequency

Table 11
Comparison of natural frequencies 𝜔 (in rad/s) with the literature for homogeneous isotropic SSSS and SCSC stepped plates with three
stiffener ratios (h2 /h = 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5). E = 71.2 GPa, 𝜈 = 0.3, 𝜌 = 2700 kg/m3 , a/b = 1, b1 = 0.3b, b2 = 0.1b, b3 = 0.2b, b/h = 1000.

SSSS SCSC

h2 /h = 1.0 h2 /h = 1.2 h2 /h = 1.5 h2 /h = 1.5

Mode no. Ref. [34] Present Ref. [34] Ref. [22] Present Ref. [34] Ref. [22] Present Ref. [22] Present

1 30.67 30.674 31.74 31.738 31.738 33.17 33.1710 33.1711 47.1532 47.1533
2 76.68 76.686 79.29 79.298 79.298 81.69 81.6943 81.6943 96.6177 96.6178
3 76.78 76.686 80.60 80.606 80.606 87.64 87.6777 87.6777 113.6675 113.6675
4 122.70 122.698 127.30 127.309 127.309 134.20 134.2298 134.2299 158.9544 158.9544
5 153.40 153.372 156.30 156.362 156.362 161.50 161.4955 161.4955 186.0482 186.0482
6 153.40 153.372 162.40 162.491 162.490 179.00 179.0959 179.0960 209.0831 209.0832
7 199.40 199.384 207.00 207.137 207.137 221.00 221.1042 221.1043 242.6781 242.6782
8 199.40 199.384 207.70 207.833 207.833 221.80 221.9591 221.9591 265.2018 265.2019
9 – 260.733 – 273.605 273.605 – 284.5824 284.5825 312.5401 312.5401
10 – 260.733 – 277.029 277.029 – 305.7496 305.7496 349.8873 349.8874
11 – 276.070 – 288.247 288.247 – 309.2008 309.2008 352.2201 352.2201
12 – 306.744 – 319.387 319.387 – 331.0240 331.0240 363.4384 363.4385
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 12 √
First four nondimensional natural frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all Levy type edge conditions of square
stepped S-FGM plate for two stiffener ratios (h2 /h = 1.2 & h2 /h = 1.5) with and without taking account of RI (h/a = 0.05).

h2 /h = 1.2 h2 /h = 1.5
SSSS SSSS

Mode p=0 p = 0.5 p = 1.0 p = 10 p=∞ p=0 p = 0.5 p = 1.0 p = 10 p=∞

1 16.9471 16.2756 15.5462 13.7079 13.5953 20.8794 20.0517 19.1526 16.8869 16.7481
(16.9845)a (16.3129) (15.5462) (13.7436) (13.6308) (20.9379) (20.1101) (19.2106) (16.9426) (16.8036)
2 42.2042 40.5268 38.7054 34.1181 33.8371 48.6112 46.6759 44.5750 39.2855 38.9616
(42.4355) (40.7577) (38.7054) (34.3381) (34.0563) (48.9642) (47.0283) (44.9248) (39.6211) (39.2959)
3 42.8891 41.1841 39.3327 34.6703 34.3847 51.2534 49.2137 46.9994 41.4239 41.0824
(43.1355) (41.4300) (39.3327) (34.9045) (34.6180) (51.6028) (49.5626) (47.3457) (41.7562) (41.4135)
4 67.5278 64.8353 61.9129 54.5578 54.1074 77.2101 74.1260 70.7793 62.3597 61.8443
(68.1282) (65.4345) (61.9129) (55.1282) (54.6757) (78.0462) (74.9604) (71.6076) (63.1537) (62.6354)
SFSS SFSS
1 10.1272 9.7262 9.2907 8.1927 8.1254 10.9959 10.5604 10.0874 8.8950 8.8219
(10.1420) (9.7410) (9.3053) (8.2067) (8.1393) (11.0149) (10.5794) (10.1062) (8.9131) (8.8399)
2 23.9232 22.9737 21.9425 19.3447 19.1855 25.1658 24.1664 23.0812 20.3473 20.1798
(24.0187) (23.0690) (22.0372) (19.4355) (19.2760) (25.2816) (24.2820) (23.1959) (20.4575) (20.2896)
3 35.4914 34.0816 32.5508 28.6947 28.4585 38.1279 36.6123 34.9666 30.8221 30.5682
(35.6627) (34.2526) (32.7206) (28.8576) (28.6208) (38.3423) (36.8263) (35.1791) (31.0260) (30.7713)
4 50.7750 48.7536 46.5592 41.0344 40.6960 54.1447 51.9867 49.6443 43.7484 43.3873
(51.1422) (49.1201) (46.9231) (41.3834) (41.0438) (54.6031) (52.4442) (50.0985) (44.1839) (43.8213)
SCSS SCSS
1 20.2138 19.3667 18.4987 16.3111 16.1770 20.8794 20.0517 19.1526 16.8869 16.7481
(20.2138) (19.4146) (18.5462) (16.3567) (16.2224) (20.9379) (20.1101) (19.2106) (16.9426) (16.8036)
2 45.1260 43.0790 41.1423 36.2649 35.9661 48.6112 46.6759 44.5750 39.2855 38.9616
(45.1260) (43.3418) (41.4032) (36.5152) (36.2155) (48.9642) (47.0283) (44.9248) (39.6211) (39.2959)
3 50.3233 48.0413 45.8815 40.4424 40.1092 51.2534 49.2137 46.9994 41.4239 41.0824
(50.3233) (48.3336) (46.1717) (40.7208) (40.3865) (51.6028) (49.5626) (47.3457) (41.7562) (41.4135)
4 74.2909 70.6766 67.4900 59.4705 58.9795 77.2101 74.1260 70.7793 62.3597 61.8443
(74.2909) (71.3536) (68.1621) (60.1150) (59.6216) (78.0462) (74.9604) (71.6076) (63.1537) (62.6354)
SFSF SFSF
1 8.3592 8.0284 7.6689 6.7628 6.7072 9.1274 8.7661 8.3735 7.3840 7.3233
(8.3688) (8.0379) (7.6784) (6.7719) (6.7163) (9.1399) (8.7785) (8.3859) (7.3959) (7.3352)
2 14.0247 13.4689 12.8651 11.3436 11.2504 15.3029 14.6961 14.0371 12.3765 12.2747
(14.0593) (13.5034) (12.8995) (11.3766) (11.2832) (15.3475) (14.7407) (14.0814) (12.4190) (12.3170)
3 31.6944 30.4336 29.0647 25.6178 25.4067 33.3365 32.0093 30.5685 26.9410 26.7188
(31.8980) (30.6369) (29.2665) (25.8114) (25.5995) (33.5794) (32.2517) (30.8091) (27.1719) (26.9489)
4 33.6026 32.2683 30.8192 27.1691 26.9454 36.2378 34.7977 33.2340 29.2957 29.0544
(33.7548) (32.4202) (30.9701) (27.3139) (27.0897) (36.4304) (34.9900) (33.4250) (29.4789) (29.2369)
SFSC SFSC
1 10.9667 10.5324 9.5301 8.8716 8.7987 9.1274 8.7661 8.3735 7.3840 7.3233
(8.3688) (8.0379) (7.6784) (6.7719) (6.7163) (9.1399) (8.7785) (8.3859) (7.3959) (7.3352)
2 28.3258 27.2010 24.6878 22.9027 22.7141 15.3029 14.6961 14.0371 12.3765 12.2747
(28.4534) (27.3284) (26.1060) (23.0240) (22.8350) (15.3475) (14.7407) (14.0814) (12.4190) (12.3170)
3 35.8738 34.4488 31.2776 29.0037 28.7649 33.3365 32.0093 30.5685 26.9410 26.7188
(36.0484) (34.6231) (33.0745) (29.1697) (28.9303) (33.5794) (32.2517) (30.8091) (27.1719) (26.9489)
4 54.1777 52.0201 47.3648 43.7815 43.4204 36.2378 34.7977 33.2340 29.2957 29.0544
(54.5892) (52.4309) (50.0858) (44.1727) (43.8102) (36.4304) (34.9900) (33.4250) (29.4789) (29.2369)
SCSC SCSC
1 24.5166 23.5449 22.4894 19.8296 19.6666 25.1571 24.1596 23.0761 20.3458 20.1785
(24.5783) (23.6065) (22.5507) (19.8884) (19.7251) (25.2337) (24.2360) (23.1520) (20.4187) (20.2511)
2 47.4843 45.5961 43.5460 38.3832 38.0670 51.3213 49.2777 47.0593 41.4743 41.1322
(47.7686) (45.8800) (43.8278) (38.6536) (38.3364) (51.7042) (49.6600) (47.4388) (41.8382) (41.4948)
3 59.2470 56.8911 54.3333 47.8917 47.4971 60.4241 58.0198 55.4095 48.8370 48.4344
(59.5993) (57.2430) (54.6825) (48.2268) (47.8310) (60.8283) (58.4233) (55.8101) (49.2212) (48.8173)
4 80.7367 77.5159 74.0204 65.2237 64.6851 84.1326 80.7712 77.1238 67.9480 67.3863
(81.4973) (78.2751) (74.7740) (65.9463) (65.4051) (85.0632) (81.7000) (78.0457) (68.8317) (68.2668)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.

results (𝜔in rad/s) for a square SSSS stepped plate with three different
stiffener thickness ratios (h2 /h = 1.0, 1.2 and 1.5) and for a square SCSC
stepped plate with thickness ratio h2 /h = 1.5. The other dimensions of
the stepped plate are considered as; a = 1, b/a = 1, b1 = 0.3b, b2 = 0.1b,
b3 = 0.2b, b/h = 1000. Aluminium material properties with E = 71.2 GPa,
𝜈 = 0.3, 𝜌 = 2700 kg/m3 are used in this analysis. The first 12 natural
frequencies are compared in the table. It can be seen that the DSM fre-
quency results are in excellent agreement with the results reported by
Guo et al. [34] and Boscolo and Banerjee [22].
Note that Guo et al. [34] used dynamic shape function for their dy-
namic finite strip method and the computed natural frequencies were
more accurate than the corresponding results from the conventional
FEM. However, as pointed out by Boscolo and Banerjee [22], this dy-
namic finite strip method is neither as efficient nor accurate as DSM.
The natural frequencies reported by Guo [34] were still approximate.
Whereas, the DSM developed in Boscolo and Banerjee [22] as well as in
this work has the capability to give exact frequency results because it
does not make any approximation en route.
In this work, DSM has been implemented, for the first time in the
literature, to study free vibration behaviour of stepped thickness FGM
plates. As stated earlier for the cases of uniform thickness FGM plates, it
can also be claimed that the DSM results reported here for the stepped
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 13 √
First four nondimensional natural frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all Levy type
edge conditions of square stepped E-FGM plate for two stiffener ratios (h2 /h = 1.2 & h2 /h = 1.5) with and without
taking account of RI (h/a = 0.05).

h2 /h = 1.2 h2 /h = 1.5

BCs 𝝎∗𝟏 𝝎∗2 𝝎∗3 𝝎∗4 𝝎∗𝟏 𝝎∗2 𝝎∗3 𝝎∗4

SSSS 14.3432 35.7045 36.2828 57.1034 14.9846 36.7475 39.4068 60.1054

(14.3790)a (35.9256) (36.5182) (57.6769) (15.0281) (37.0115) (39.7222) (60.8126)
SFSS 7.0758 11.8694 26.8101 28.4311 7.7258 12.9504 28.1960 30.6576
(7.0850) (11.9025) (27.0047) (28.5767) (7.7378) (12.9931) (28.4281) (30.8418)
SCSS 17.0670 37.9518 42.3235 62.2463 17.7259 41.4528 43.6867 66.0735
(17.1129) (38.2034) (42.6034) (62.8942) (17.7259) (41.4528) (43.6867) (66.0735)
SFSF 7.0758 11.8694 26.8101 28.4311 7.7258 12.9504 28.1960 30.6576
(7.0850) (11.9025) (27.0047) (28.5767) (7.7378) (12.9931) (28.4281) (30.8418)
SFSC 14.3432 35.7045 36.2828 57.1034 14.9846 36.7475 39.4068 60.1054
(14.3790) (35.9256) (36.5182) (57.6769) (15.0281) (37.0115) (39.7222) (60.8126)
SCSC 20.7488 40.1689 50.1196 68.2686 21.2895 43.4066 51.1106 71.1253
(20.8079) (40.4407) (50.4564) (68.9952) (21.3627) (43.7725) (51.4969) (72.0140)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.

Table 14 √
Nondimensional fundamental frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 )) for all Levy type edge conditions of rectangular
stepped S-FGM plate for two stiffener ratios (h2 /h = 1.2 & h2 /h = 1.5) with and without taking account of RI (h/a = 0.05).

h2 /h = 1.2 h2 /h = 1.5
SSSS SSSS

a/b p=0 p = 0.5 p = 1.0 p = 10 p=∞ p=0 p = 0.5 p = 1.0 p = 10 p=∞

0.5 10.7223 10.2960 9.8332 8.6676 8.5962 11.6475 11.1839 10.6805 9.4133 9.3357
(10.7839)a (10.3575) (9.8942) (8.7261) (8.6545) (11.7300) (11.2662) (10.7623) (9.4917) (9.4138)
1.5 27.4937 26.4050 25.2224 22.2414 22.0586 28.2114 27.0941 25.8804 22.8212 22.6337
(27.5364) (26.4476) (25.2647) (22.0991) (22.0586) (28.2603) (27.1429) (25.9289) (22.8678) (22.6801)
2.0 42.3695 40.6922 38.8700 34.2767 33.9952 43.1779 41.4684 39.6112 34.9300 34.6430
(42.4255) (40.7481) (38.9255) (34.3300) (34.0483) (43.2401) (41.5305) (39.6729) (34.9892) (34.7020)
SFSS SFSS
0.5 8.8728 8.5204 8.1377 7.1737 7.1146 9.5320 9.1531 8.7417 7.7055 7.6420
(9.5856) (8.5632) (8.1801) (7.2144) (7.1552) (9.5856) (9.2066) (8.7948) (7.7565) (7.6928)
1.5 11.9152 11.4438 10.9315 9.6402 9.5610 12.9943 12.4800 11.9214 10.5129 10.4266
(11.9252) (11.4537) (10.9414) (9.6496) (9.5704) (13.0072) (12.4929) (11.9341) (10.5252) (10.4388)
2.0 14.0487 13.4930 12.8891 11.3668 11.2734 15.3787 14.7702 14.1091 12.4426 12.3404
(14.0574) (13.5016) (12.8977) (11.3750) (11.2817) (15.3900) (14.7815) (14.1204) (12.4533) (12.3511)
SCSS SCSS
0.5 11.2157 10.7698 10.2856 9.0662 8.9915 12.1528 11.6690 11.1437 9.8214 9.7404
(11.2815) (10.8355) (10.3508) (9.1288) (9.0539) (12.2411) (11.7571) (11.2312) (9.9053) (9.8240)
1.5 36.0280 34.6011 33.0511 29.1443 28.9642 36.5412 35.0936 33.5212 29.5581 29.3152
(36.0906) (34.6636) (33.1132) (29.2039) (28.9048) (36.6139) (35.1663) (33.5933) (29.6274) (29.3842)
2.0 58.6040 56.2835 53.7627 47.4087 47.0192 58.9334 56.5995 54.0641 47.6736 47.2818
(58.6927) (56.3721) (53.8507) (47.4932) (47.1034) (59.0342) (56.7001) (54.1640) (47.7695) (47.3774)
SFSF SFSF
0.5 8.4006 8.0671 7.7048 6.7923 6.7364 9.0594 8.6994 8.3085 7.3239 7.2636
(8.4387) (8.1051) (7.7425) (6.8285) (6.7724) (9.1076) (8.7475) (8.3562) (7.3697) (7.3092)
1.5 8.3122 7.9834 7.6262 6.7255 6.6703 9.1142 8.7536 8.3619 7.3743 7.3137
(8.3165) (7.9876) (7.6304) (6.7295) (6.6743) (9.1198) (8.7592) (8.3674) (7.3796) (7.3190)
2.0 8.2819 7.9544 7.5985 6.7012 6.6462 9.1006 8.7406 8.3496 7.3636 7.3031
(8.2843) (7.9567) (7.6008) (6.7035) (6.6485) (9.1037) (8.7438) (8.3527) (7.3666) (7.3061)
SCSF SCSF
0.5 8.9685 8.6122 8.2254 7.2509 7.1912 9.6125 9.2304 8.8155 7.7706 7.7066
(9.0121) (8.6558) (8.2686) (7.2924) (7.2326) (9.6668) (9.2845) (8.8693) (7.8222) (7.7580)
1.5 14.5184 13.9438 13.3196 11.7460 11.6496 15.6547 15.0351 14.3619 12.6650 12.5609
(14.5324) (13.9578) (13.3335) (11.7593) (11.6628) (15.6728) (15.0531) (14.3798) (12.6822) (12.5781)
2.0 19.6188 18.8425 17.9991 15.8730 15.7427 20.9529 20.1237 19.2229 16.9520 16.8127
(19.6338) (18.8575) (18.0141) (15.8874) (15.7570) (20.9723) (20.1431) (19.2421) (16.9704) (16.8312)
SCSC SCSC
0.5 11.8711 11.3990 10.8865 9.5958 9.5167 12.8303 12.3194 11.7648 10.3686 10.2831
(11.9422) (11.4700) (10.9570) (9.6634) (9.5841) (12.9261) (12.4150) (11.8597) (10.4596) (10.3737)
1.5 47.2490 45.3775 43.3445 38.2204 37.9063 47.4502 45.5701 43.5277 38.3806 38.0652
(47.3382) (45.4665) (43.4329) (38.3053) (37.9909) (47.5576) (45.6773) (43.6342) (38.4828) (38.1670)
2.0 79.5684 76.4174 72.9944 64.3665 63.8377 79.2020 76.0645 72.6563 64.0664 63.5399
(79.7010) (76.5498) (73.1259) (64.4927) (63.9634) (79.3601) (76.2224) (72.8131) (64.2169) (63.6899)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

Table 15 √
First four nondimensional natural frequencies (𝜔∗ = 𝜔𝑎2 𝜌𝑐 ℎ∕𝐷𝑐 ) with Dc = Ec h3 /(12(1 − 𝜈 2 ))for all Levy type edge condi-
tions of square stepped E-FGM plate for two stiffener ratios (h2 /h = 1.2 & h2 /h = 1.5) with and without taking account of RI
(h/a = 0.05).

h2 /h = 1.2 h2 /h = 1.5

BCs a/b 𝝎∗𝟏 𝝎∗2 𝝎∗𝟑 𝝎∗4 𝝎∗𝟏 𝝎∗2 𝝎∗𝟑 𝝎∗4

SSSS 0.5 9.0707 14.2758 23.0573 30.6952 9.8517 15.0263 24.4987 33.7081
(9.1296)a (14.4192) (23.4608) (31.3768) (9.9306) (15.2032) (25.0427) (34.6298)
1.5 23.2713 45.0266 71.4552 81.6363 23.8782 47.8473 72.9366 88.6653
(23.3121) (45.1857) (71.8468) (82.1660) (23.9250) (48.0498) (73.3999) (89.3750)
2.0 35.8636 57.3726 93.8685 121.5192 36.5473 59.9382 100.4486 123.5989
(35.9172) (57.5158) (94.2592) (122.1548) (36.6069) (60.1123) (100.9544) (124.3481)
SFSS 0.5 7.5070 10.7365 17.0015 26.4637 8.0639 11.4472 17.7630 27.7651
(7.5480) (10.8242) (17.2314) (27.0599) (8.1151) (11.5567) (18.0366) (28.5177)
1.5 10.0863 31.9001 35.0353 59.3259 10.9995 34.5286 36.5792 62.7408
(10.0958) (31.9841) (35.1709) (59.6485) (11.0118) (34.6362) (36.7417) (63.1355)
2.0 11.8926 34.2881 55.2822 70.2423 13.0183 37.2280 57.4591 75.9067
(11.9009) (34.3445) (55.4840) (70.4695) (13.0291) (37.3006) (57.6992) (76.1967)
SCSS 0.5 9.4880 15.5616 25.2648 30.9340 10.2789 16.3188 26.7131 34.0165
(9.5509) (15.7236) (25.7253) (31.6246) (10.3632) (16.5184) (27.3386) (34.9563)
1.5 30.4942 50.1713 85.3916 87.2893 30.9275 52.9697 88.7297 92.5099
(30.5541) (50.3571) (85.9577) (87.8063) (30.9971) (53.2062) (89.3453) (93.2689)
2.0 49.6040 68.2681 102.2717 150.3177 49.8816 70.6799 108.8620 152.3067
(49.6889) (68.4515) (102.7140) (151.1721) (49.9780) (70.9037) (109.4343) (153.3244)
SFSF 0.5 7.1078 8.4301 12.8029 19.8391 7.6644 8.9037 13.5425 20.4318
(7.1442) (8.4840) (12.9412) (20.1829) (7.7104) (8.9669) (13.7099) (20.8132)
1.5 7.0366 16.0285 28.3922 40.0477 7.7154 17.7357 30.8766 43.1300
(7.0407) (16.0626) (28.4572) (40.1968) (7.7208) (17.7816) (30.9609) (43.3148)
2.0 7.0111 20.4777 28.3033 47.4777 7.7041 22.8055 30.9033 51.8017
(7.0134) (20.5165) (28.3399) (47.6102) (7.7071) (22.8590) (30.9512) (51.9725)
SCSF 0.5 7.5879 11.4554 18.5263 28.3802 8.1319 12.2007 19.1980 29.4641
(7.6296) (11.5537) (18.7861) (28.9545) (8.1838) (12.3240) (19.5004) (30.1020)
1.5 12.2896 33.1066 44.1899 67.0018 13.2512 35.7456 45.5598 70.4791
(12.3030) (33.1966) (44.3883) (67.4009) (13.2685) (35.8601) (45.7957) (70.9671)
2.0 16.6075 37.1298 72.1230 72.2602 17.7365 40.1766 74.0552 77.7479
(16.6219) (37.1949) (72.3614) (72.5697) (17.7550) (40.2602) (74.4201) (78.0499)
SCSC 0.5 10.0422 17.0672 27.6968 31.2277 10.8517 17.7813 29.2746 34.4328
(10.1102) (17.2488) (28.2351) (31.9292) (10.9431) (18.0035) (30.0373) (35.3989)
1.5 39.9910 57.1778 90.3800 105.9310 40.1593 59.9429 97.6649 107.5896
(40.0762) (57.3982) (90.9915) (106.5656) (40.2620) (60.2252) (98.4881) (108.3045)
2.0 67.3476 82.9952 113.6834 160.6755 67.0346 85.1579 120.3029 173.6265
(67.4744) (83.2314) (114.1917) (161.7626) (67.1858) (85.4508) (120.9637) (175.0900)
a
Results within bracket are without considering the effect of rotary inertia.

S-FGM and E-FGM plates are highly accurate and can be used as refer-
ence results for comparison purposes in the future. In what follows, the
frequency results for stepped thickness square S-FGM and E-FGM plates
are reported first and subsequently, results for rectangular stepped
plates are presented.
5.5.1. Analysis of stepped thickness square FGM plate
Nondimensional natural frequency results for stepped thickness
square S-FGM and E-FGM plates are discussed here. The thickness con-
figuration of the FGM plate is taken same as it is shown in Fig. 10.
Frequency results are computed for two stiffener thickness ratios of
h2 /h = 1.2 and h2 /h = 1.5. In the following tables, as it was done for uni-
form thickness plates, the bracketed frequency results are without con-
sidering the effect of rotary inertia of the plate whereas the results with-
out bracket are with the consideration of rotary inertia for a thickness-
to-side ratio (h/a) of 0.05.
In Table 12, first four nondimensional natural frequencies of square
S-FGM stepped plates with two stiffener ratios are shown for five dif-
ferent sigmoid volume fraction index (p). Results for all six Levy type
edge conditions are shown. As it was seen for the case of uniform thick-
ness plate, Table 12 also shows that the nondimensional frequency of
the plates decreases with the increase of p values. Again, this decreas-
ing trend of the nondimensional frequency for higher p is due to the
reduction of the overall plate stiffness as it introduces more metallic
constituents to the plate. It is also seen from Table 12 that the nondi-
mensional frequency, for a given p, increases with the increase of the
stiffener thickness ratios. This is because the stiffness of the stepped S-
FGM plate increases as the stiffener thickness ratio increases.
Table 13 shows the first four nondimensional natural frequencies of
the stepped thickness square E-FGM plate for two different stiffener ra-
tios and for all Levy type boundary conditions. Similar to that of the
S-FGM plates, it is also noticed from the Table 13 that the nondimen-
sional frequency of E-FGM plates increases with the increase in stiffener
thickness ratio as it provides more stiffness to the plate.
5.5.2. Analysis of stepped thickness rectangular FGM plate
In this subsection, the DSM frequency results for the stepped thick-
ness rectangular S-FGM and E-FGM plates are reported with and without
considering the effect of rotary inertia. All six Levy type edge conditions
are considered. In Table 14, the first (fundamental) nondimensional fre-
quencies of the rectangular stepped S-FGM plate for three different as-
pect ratios of the plate are shown. And, Table 15 shows the first four
natural frequency results of the stepped thickness E-FGM rectangular
plates for three different aspect ratios.
From Tables 14 and 15 for the stepped rectangular plates, it is seen
that the increase in the aspect ratio of the plate increases the nondimen-
sional fundamental frequencies for five Levy type boundary conditions
except the SFSF plate. This trend is almost similar to that of the uni-
form thickness plate. Note that the results discussed for square stepped
plate corresponds to aspect ratio a/b = 1.0 and those results can also
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

be included here for discussing this trend. For the five boundary condi- Appendix A. Explicit expressions of z0 , DFGM , I0 and I2
tions, the plate stiffness increases as the plates become longer and that
explains this increasing trend of the nondimensional fundamental fre- A1. For the S-FGM plate
quencies. However, due to the presence of free edges, the SFSF plate be-
haves differently. For h2 /h = 1.2, similar to the uniform thickness plate, ℎ∕2 0
∫0 𝐸1 (𝑧)𝑧𝑑𝑧 + ∫−ℎ∕2 𝐸2 (𝑧)𝑧𝑑𝑧
the nondimensional fundamental frequency decreases as the plate as- (𝑧0 )𝑆 =
ℎ∕2 0
pect ratios are increased from 0.5 to 2.0. This is because the SFSF plate ∫0
𝐸1 (𝑧)𝑑𝑧 + ∫−ℎ∕2 𝐸2 (𝑧)𝑑𝑧
[ ]
becomes weaker as the free length of the plate increases. However, for ℎ (𝐸𝑐 − 𝐸𝑚 ) (𝐸𝑚 − 𝐸𝑐 )
h2 /h = 1.5, the fundamental frequency increases initially up to a/b = 1.0 = ( ) +
2 𝐸𝑐 + 𝐸𝑚 2 (𝑝 + 1)(𝑝 + 2)
and starts decreasing afterwards. This interesting behaviour may be at- [ ]
ℎ ( 𝐸 𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1) (1 − 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 )
tributed to a dominant effect of the increase of plate stiffness due to = ( ) +
2 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1 2 (𝑝 + 1)(𝑝 + 2)
a relatively high value of stiffener thickness ratio (i.e. h2 /h = 1.5) for
lower aspect ratios up to 1.0 and subsequent reduction of overall plate ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ℎ∕2
stiffness due to the dominant effect of longer free edges for larger aspect (𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 )𝑆 = (𝑧2𝑛𝑠 )𝑄11 (𝑧𝑛𝑠 )𝑑 𝑧𝑛𝑠 = 𝑄 (𝑧)(𝑧 − 𝑧0 )2 𝑑𝑧
∫−ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ∫−ℎ∕2 11
ratios of the SFSF plates. [ { }
Upon comparison with the uniform thickness plate, it can be found ℎ3 𝐸𝑐 + 𝐸𝑚 ( 𝑧0 ) (𝐸𝑚 − 𝐸𝑐 ) (𝐸 − 𝐸𝑚 )
= − + 𝑐
that the stepped thickness FGM plates produce higher values of nondi- 2(1 − 𝜈 2 ) 12 ℎ (𝑝 + 1)(𝑝 + 2) 2
mensional frequencies. This is because the presence of stiffeners pro- ( 𝑧 )2 ]
vides more bending stiffness to the plate in comparison to the uniform + (𝐸𝑐 + 𝐸𝑚 ) 0
ℎ
[ { }
thickness plate. It can be emphasised here that the natural frequency 6𝐷𝑐 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1 ( 𝑧0 ) (1 − 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 ) (𝐸 − 1)
results reported in above two sections for stepped thickness S-FGM and = − + 𝑟𝑎𝑡
𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 12 ℎ (𝑝 + 1)(𝑝 + 2) 2
E-FGM plates are new, in the context of existing literature, and can be ( 𝑧 )2 ]
treated as an important contribution of the present work. + (𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1) 0
ℎ
ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ℎ∕2 ( )
( ) ( ) 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1
6. Conclusions 𝐼0 𝑆 = 𝜌 𝑧𝑛𝑠 𝑑 𝑧𝑛𝑠 = 𝜌(𝑧)𝑑𝑧 = 𝜌𝑐 ℎ
∫−ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ∫−ℎ∕2 2𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡
( ) ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ( ) ( )2 ℎ∕2
In this paper, free vibration behaviour of thin FGM plate with sig-
𝐼2 𝑆 = 𝑧2𝑛𝑠 𝜌 𝑧𝑛𝑠 𝑑 𝑧𝑛𝑠 =
𝜌(𝑧) 𝑧 − 𝑧0 𝑑𝑧
moid and exponential properties variation is investigated by implement- ∫−ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ∫−ℎ∕2
ing the dynamic stiffness method. For better accuracy, the effect of ro- [ { ( ) ( )}
(𝑧 ) 𝜌𝑚 − 𝜌𝑐 𝜌𝑐 − 𝜌𝑚
ℎ 3 𝜌𝑐 + 𝜌𝑚
tary inertia is also incorporated. As the plate is assumed thin, the clas- = − 0 +
2 12 ℎ (𝑝 + 1)(𝑝 + 2) 2
sical plate theory in conjunction with the concept of physical neutral
]
surface is used for the mathematical formulation. The governing differ- ( )( 𝑧0 )2
+ 𝜌𝑐 + 𝜌𝑚
ential equation of motion and the natural boundary conditions are de- ℎ
rived through the application of Hamilton’s principle. Considering two [ { ( ) ( )}
𝜌 ℎ 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1 ( 𝑧0 )
3 1 − 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1
opposite edges of the plate as simply supported, a Levy type solution is = 𝑐 − +
2𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 12 ℎ (𝑝 + 1)(𝑝 + 2) 2
sought for the governing differential equation of motion. The dynamic
]
stiffness matrix is composed by imposing generic boundary conditions ( )( 𝑧0 )2
+ 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1
at the other two edges of the FGM plate. The mathematical expressions ℎ
of the elements of this dynamic stiffness matrix are given in details. Fi-
nally, the well-known Wittrick-Williams algorithm is applied as solution A2. For the E-FGM plate
technique to solve the dynamic stiffness matrix in order to compute the
natural frequencies of the FGM plate. ℎ∕2 ⎡ ⎤
∫−ℎ∕2 𝐸 (𝑧)𝑧𝑑 𝑧
⎢ −1 𝐸𝑐 + 𝐸𝑚 ⎥
A MATLAB code is implemented to execute the above described pro- (𝑧0 )𝐸 = = ℎ⎢ ( )
𝐸 𝑐 − 𝐸 𝑚 ⎥⎥
+
ℎ∕2
cedure for computing the DSM natural frequencies. These frequencies ∫−ℎ∕2 𝐸 (𝑧)𝑑 𝑧 ⎢ log 𝐸𝑐
⎣ 𝐸𝑚 ⎦
are compared with the literature whenever available. It is found that [ ]
these DSM results are highly accurate and are in excellent agreement −1 𝐸 𝑟𝑎𝑡 + 1
=ℎ ( )+
with the published results. Moreover, some inaccurate published results log 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1
are reported and the reasons for this inaccuracy are highlighted. It is also
( ) ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ( ) ( ) ℎ∕2 ( )2
demonstrated, by comparisons with published results, that the DSM has
𝐷𝐹 𝐺𝑀 = 𝑧2𝑛𝑠 𝑄11 𝑧𝑛𝑠 𝑑 𝑧𝑛𝑠 = 𝑄11 (𝑧) 𝑧 − 𝑧0 𝑑𝑧
advantages over some other methods. As the Writtrick-Williams algo- 𝐸 ∫−ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ∫−ℎ∕2
rithm is utilised in the frequency computation, this DSM approach does [ ( )
not miss any frequency within a given frequency range. ℎ3 𝐸𝑐 − 𝐸𝑚 𝐸𝑚 + 𝐸𝑐 2 𝐸𝑐 − 𝐸𝑚
= ( )( ) − ( )+ ( )2
Furthermore, this paper provides new sets of DSM frequency results, log 𝐸𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑚 1 − 𝜈 2 4 log 𝐸𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑚 log 𝐸𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑚
with and without incorporating the rotary inertia, for the uniform thick- { } ]
(𝑧 ) 𝐸 + 𝐸 𝐸𝑐 − 𝐸𝑚 ( 𝑧 )2 { }
𝑚 𝑐
+2 0 − ( ) +
0
𝐸𝑐 − 𝐸𝑚
ℎ 2 log 𝐸𝑐 ∕𝐸𝑚 ℎ
ness S-FGM and E-FGM square/rectangular plates. To highlight the ef-
fect of various material parameters on the natural frequencies, several [ ( )
12𝐷𝑐 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1 1 − 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 2 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1
tables and graphs are shown. Effect of boundary conditions on the fre- ( = ) − ( ) + ( )2
quency results is also discussed in details. log 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 4 log 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 log 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡
{ } ]
Lastly, DSM is implemented, for the first time, to analyse the free vi- (𝑧 ) 1 + 𝐸 1 − 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 ( 𝑧 )2 { }
0 𝑟𝑎𝑡 0
bration behaviour of stepped thickness S-FGM and E-FGM plates. Both +2 − ( ) + 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1
ℎ 2 log 𝐸𝑟𝑎𝑡 ℎ
square and rectangular stepped plates are considered. It is shown that ( )
( ) ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ( ) ℎ∕2
the DSM frequency results are sufficiently accurate for these thin uni- 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡 − 1
𝐼0 𝐸 = 𝜌 𝑧𝑛𝑠 𝑑 𝑧𝑛𝑠 = 𝜌(𝑧)𝑑𝑧 =ℎ𝜌𝑐 ( )
form as well as stepped thickness FGM plates and these results can be ∫−ℎ∕2−𝑧0 ∫−ℎ∕2 log 𝜌𝑟𝑎𝑡
referred as benchmark solution for validation purposes in the future.
S. Kumar and P. Jana International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 163 (2019) 105105

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