333

Proceedings of International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engg.
(ICRAME2010) 8-9, April 2010

Organised by: Dept.of Mechanical Engg., Noorul Islam University, Kumaracoil, Tamilnadu, India.
466

A NUMERICAL METHOD FOR FORCED VIBRATION STUDY OF
STIFFENED PLATES THROUGH A STATIC ANALYSIS

Anirban Mitra, Prasanta Sahoo, and Kashinath Saha

Abstract In the present paper large amplitude forced
vibration behaviour of stiffened plates under harmonic
excitation is studied numerically incorporating the effect of
geometric non-linearity. The forced vibration analysis is
carried out in an indirect way in which the dynamic system is
assumed to satisfy the force equilibrium condition at peak
excitation amplitude. The mathematical formulation is based
on energy principles and the set of governing equations is
derived using Hamiltons principle. Appropriate start
functions are assumed satisfying the corresponding boundary
conditions of the plate and the necessary higher-order
functions are formed by following the two dimensional Gram-
Schmidt orthogonalization procedure. The equivalent static
problem is solved by employing an iterative direct substitution
method with an appropriate relaxation technique. Two types of
loading pattern, namely central concentrated load and
uniformly distributed load are considered. The results are
furnished graphically in the dimensionless amplitude-
frequency plane. It is observed that, as the amplitude of load
reduces, the nonlinear behaviour of the stiffened plate attains
the shape of backbone curve.

KeywordsEnergy methods, Forced vibration, Harmonic
excitation, Variational formulation

I. INTRODUCTION

STIFFENED plates are important structural elements due to
their enhanced stiffness characteristics with the advantage of
light weight, which leads to material saving and cost
reduction. So, it is no surprise that they are extensively used
in many branches of modern civil, mechanical, and
structural engineering. They have wide application in
constructing marine structures like floors of bridges, bridge
decks, ship hulls etc and aircraft structures. In these
applications stiffened plates are regularly subjected to static
and dynamic loads. Hence, analysis of stiffened plates under
different loading conditions has always been an area of
immense interest to researches.

In one of the earlier works Rossow and Ibrahimkhail [1]
applied the constraint method to finite element static
analysis of concentrically and eccentrically stiffened plates.
Koko and Olson [2] developed a new numerical technique
for large deflection elastoplastic analysis of stiffened plates
using super finite elements. Bedair [3] put forward a
methodology for the analysis of multi-stiffened plates under
lateral loading based on energy formulation and sequential
quadratic programming (SQP) technique. Geometric non-
linear analysis of stiffened plates was carried out by Sheikh
and Mukhopadhyay [4] utilizing spline finite strip method
and von Karman non-linear plate theory. All of the above
mentioned works dealt with transverse static loading and the
static response of stiffened plates.
Research work on dynamic behaviour of stiffened plates
also evolved through different phases as nonlinear analysis
of such structures was carried out by different researchers
through different methodologies, like orthotropic plate
method, finite elements method, finite difference method,
energy method etc. Aksu and Ali [5] examined free
vibration characteristic of rectangular stiffened plates having
a single stiffener using finite difference method. Mukherjee
and Mukhopadhyay [6] introduced an isoparametric
quadratic stiffened plate bending element for the free
vibration analysis of eccentrically stiffened plates. Harik and
Guo [7] presented a compound finite element model based
on small deflection theory to investigate free vibration of
eccentrically stiffened plates. Chen et al [8] proposed a
spline compound strip method for analyzing the free
vibration problem of stiffened plates. Bedair and Troitsky
[9] studied the fundamental frequency characteristics of
eccentrically and concentrically stiffened simply supported
plates on the basis of energy formulation. In these works the
focus was to determine the linear free vibration frequency of
stiffened plate structures. Varadan and Pandalai [10]
investigated influence of large amplitude on free flexural
vibrations of eccentrically stiffened elastic rectangular plates
with clamped boundary conditions. Rao et al [11] also
studied large amplitude free flexural vibrations of stiffened
and unstiffened plates using finite element method.
Review of the existing literature indicates that studies are
primarily focused on free vibration problem and forced
vibration analysis of stiffened plates are rare. Dumir and
Bhaskar [12] dealt with large amplitude forced vibrations of
orthotropic thin rectangular plates under uniformly
distributed harmonic force. Leissa [13] also put forward a
method for determining the steady state vibratory response
Anirban Mitra is a Research Scholar at the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata
700032 India (telefax: +91 33 2414 6890; e-mail:
samik893@gmail.com).
Prasanta Sahoo is a Professor with the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032
India (e-mail: psjume@gmail.com).
Kashinath Saha is a Associate Professor with the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata
700032 India (e-mail: kashinathsaha@gmail.com)
Proceedings of International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engg. (ICRAME2010) 8-9, April 2010

Organised by: Dept.of Mechanical Engg., Noorul Islam University, Kumaracoil, Tamilnadu, India. 467
of continuous systems, including plates, subjected to
distributed excitation forces. Kadiri and Benamar [14]
developed a semi-analytical model based on Hamiltons
principle and spectral analysis, for determination of steady
state periodic forced response of rectangular plates.
Geometric nonlinear large amplitude forced vibration of
plates was studied by Ribeiro [15] using shooting, Newton
and p-version hierarchical finite element methods. Amabili
[16] investigated, theoretically and experimentally, the large
amplitude vibrations of rectangular plates with geometric
imperfections subjected to harmonic excitation. In a recent
work Efimtsov and Lazarev [17] undertook forced vibration
study of plates and cylindrical shells with regular orthogonal
system of stiffeners.
The present paper undertakes a large amplitude forced
vibration analysis of stiffened plates under harmonic
excitation through a numerical method. The basic
assumption of this method is that the system satisfies force
equilibrium condition at maximum excitation amplitude
value, therefore, reducing the system to an equivalent static
system. The mathematical formulation is based on energy
principle. Geometric non-linearity is accounted for by
consideration of nonlinear strain-displacement relations. A
direct substitution method with relaxation parameter and a
quasi-Newton method known as Broyden method are used
to solve the set of non-linear equations. Validity of the
presented method is justified through comparison with
existing results.
II. ANALYSIS

A stiffened plate with a single stiffener parallel to y-axis
along with the significant dimensions and coordinate system
used for the present analysis is shown in Fig. 1. Although
the figure shows a single y-directional stiffener, the
formulation is carried out for biaxially stiffened plates with
generalized spacing. It is assumed that the stiffeners are
always parallel to the edges of the plate and they are integral
with the plate surface i.e. there is field discontinuity
between the two. The mathematical formulation is based on
the assumption that plate and stiffener materials are
isotropic, homogeneous and linearly elastic. The thickness
of the plate is sufficiently small compared to the lateral
dimensions, such that the effect of shear deformation and
rotary inertia may be neglected.
In the present study forced vibration analysis of stiffened
plates under harmonic transverse loading is carried out
numerically and only the steady state dynamic response of
the system is dealt with. The external excitation is
considered as harmonic and the system response is assumed
to have the same frequency as that of the external excitation.
The analysis is carried out in an indirect way, in which the
dynamic system is assumed to satisfy the force equilibrium
condition at peak load value. To determine the response of
the system a frequency sweep is carried out at particular
amplitude of the external excitation. At each step of the
frequency sweep the inertia force equals the maximum load
value. Thus the dynamic problem is reduced to an
equivalent static one, whose response is a function of the
external excitation frequency and amplitude of loading.

Fig. 1 Stiffened plate with significant dimensions and
coordinate system

The mathematical formulation is based on variational
form of energy principle and the set of governing equations
is derived using Hamiltons principle. Nonlinear strain-
displacement relations are considered in deriving the
governing equations, thereby taking into consideration the
geometric nonlinearity. The solution is approximate in
nature due to the assumption of the individual dynamic
displacement fields as finite linear combinations of
orthogonal admissible functions and unknown coefficients.
The set of nonlinear equations is solved by applying direct
substitution technique with successive relaxation scheme.
Also Broydens method [18], which is a globally convergent
solution algorithm, is employed separately.
D. Mathematical Formulation
The governing set of equations for the dynamic problem
is derived following Hamiltons principle, which states that,
( ) 0
2
1
2
1
=
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
=
|
|
|
.
|
\
|

} }

d L d V U T .
(1)
Here, T, U and V are the total kinetic energy of the system,
total strain energy stored in the system and work function or

468
potential of the external forces respectively. L, and
represent the Lagrangian, the variational operator and time
coordinate respectively. The above mentioned energy
functionals are determined from the assumed dynamic
displacement fields.
The total kinetic energy (T) is summation of plate kinetic
energy (
p
T ) and stiffener kinetic energy (
s
T ).

= =
+ + = + =
y x
ns
q
q
sy
ns
p
p
sx p s p
T T T T T T
1 1
, (2)
where,
p
sx
T ,
q
sy
T are kinetic energies of p-th stiffener along
x-direction and q-th stiffener along y-direction, respectively
and the expressions for the kinetic energies are given below.

d d
v u w
ab t T
p p p
(
(
|
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
=
} }
2 2 2
1
0
1
0
) (
2
1

d
v u w
ab t T
p
sx
p
sx s
p
sx
(
(
|
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
=
}
2 2 2
1
0
) (
2
1
(3)

d
v u w
bb t T
q
sy
q
sy s
q
sy
(
(
|
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
+ |
.
|
\
|
=
}
2 2 2
1
0
) (
2
1

Total strain energy (U) consists of two parts: strain
energy stored in the plate (
p
U ) and total strain energy (
s
U )
stored in all the stiffeners. In case of large displacement
analysis, both bending and stretching effects are taken into
consideration. So, total strain energy stored in plate (
p
U ) is
given by,
m b p
U U U + = , where,
b
U is the strain energy due
to pure bending and
m
U is the strain energy due to
stretching of its mid-plane.

d d
w w w
b a
w
b
w
a
ab
D
U
b
(
(
(
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|

|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
=
}}
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 2
1
0
1
0
2
2
2
2 2
2
2
1
) 1 ( 2
1 1
) (
2
(4)

d d
w w v
b a
w w u
ab
v
a
v u
ab
u
b
w u
ab
w v
b a
v u
ab
w
b
w
a
w v
b
v
b
w u
a
u
a
ab
t E
U
p p
m
(
(
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
=
}}
2 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
2
2
1
0
1
0
2
3
2
2 2
2 2
1 2 1
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
4
1 1 1
1 1
) (
) 1 ( 2
(5)
Here,
p
E , and ( ) ) 1 ( 12
2 3
=
p p
t E D are the elastic
modulus, Poissons ratio and the flexural rigidity of the plate
respectively. u , v and w denote the displacements along x-
, y- and z- directions, respectively. It is to be noted that u
and v are deformation displacement whereas w is body
displacement or deflection.
The strain energy stored in all the stiffeners can be
expressed as,

= =
+ =
y x
ns
q
q
sy
ns
p
p
sx s
U U U
1 1
, where
p
sx
U ,
q
sy
U are strain energies stored in p-th stiffener along x-
direction and q-th stiffener along y-direction and
y x
ns ns ,
are number of stiffeners in x- and y- direction respectively.
These two strain energies can be calculated from the
following expressions.
}}}
=
Vol
s
xx
s p
sx
dV
E
U
2
) (
2
(6a)
}}}
=
Vol
s
yy
s q
sy
dV
E
U
2
) (
2
(6b)
where,
s
E is the elastic modulus of the stiffener material
and
s
xx
is the total axial strain of a stiffener along x-
direction and it includes axial strain due to bending about
the major axis, axial strain due to stretching of mid-plane
and axial strain due to bending about the minor axis and can
be expressed as,
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
dx
v d
y
dx
w d
z
dx
dw
dx
du
s s
s
xx
|
.
|
\
|
+ = . (7)
Substituting (7) in (6a) the strain energy stored in a single x-
direction stiffener is obtained as,

d
d
dw
d
du
a
d
dw
a
d
du
a
A
d
dw
d
w d
a d
w d
d
du
a
Q
d
v d
a
I
d
w d
a
I
a E
U
p
y
p
y
p
yz
p
y
s p
sx
(
(
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
=
}
2
3
4
4
2
2
2
2
2
4 2
2
3
2
2
2
4
2
2
2
4
1
0
1
4
1 1
1 2
1 1
2
(8)
Similarly, strain energy stored in a single y-direction
stiffener is obtained as,

d
d
dw
d
dv
b
d
dw
b
d
dv
b
A
d
dw
d
w d
b d
w d
d
dv
b
Q
d
u d
b
I
d
w d
b
I
b E
U
q
x
q
x
q
xz
q
x
s q
sy
(
(
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
|
|
.
|
\
|
+
|
|
.
|
\
|
=
}
2
3
4
4
2
2
2
2
2
4 2
2
3
2
2
2
4
2
2
2
4
1
0
1
4
1 1
1 2
1 1
2
(9)

where,
q
x
p
y
I I , and
q
xz
p
yz
I I , are area moment of inertia of the
p-th (x-direction) and q-th (y-direction) stiffener about the
coordinate axes of the plate. They can be determined by
carrying out suitable transformation on the moment and
product of inertia about the centroidal axes of the stiffener
cross-section. For example, in case of a single y-direction
stiffener as shown in Fig. 1,
1
x
I and
1
xz
I are determined by
using following relations:
2 1 ' 1 1
.e A I I
x x x
+ = ,
2 1 1 ' 1 1
) .(
stf x xz xz
a A I I + = , where, ) 12 (
3
1 1 ' 1
sy sy x
t b I = and
) 12 (
1
3
1 '
sy sy xz
t b I = are moment of inertia about the major and
minor axis of the stiffener cross-section and
1 1 1
sy sy x
t b A = ,
a x
stf stf
1 1
= and 2 / ) (
1
sy p
t t e + = .
q
x
p
y
Q Q , are the first
moment of area about the plate coordinate axes and
q
x
p
y
A A ,
are the cross-sectional areas of the p-th and q-th stiffeners
along x- and y- direction respectively. For the case of
uniaxially stiffened plate shown in Fig. 1, e A Q
x x
.
1 1
= . Similar
nomenclatures have been used for x-directional stiffeners
also.
For a stiffened plate under uniform transverse pressure
and a concentrated load, total potential energy is given by,

d d pw ab w P V
} }
=
1
0
1
0
,
) ( ) ( | . (10)
Here,
,
| w is the deflection of the point of application of
the concentrated load. P and p represent harmonic
excitation for concentrated and pressure type loading, whose
expressions are given by
i
e P P= and
i
e x p p ) ( = ,
where, denotes the frequency of excitation and 1 = i .
P and p represent the amplitude of harmonic excitation
for concentrated loading and uniformly distributed loading.
In equations (4), (5), (8), (9) and (10) the mid-plane
coordinates are expressed in dimensionless form as
b y a x = = , , while the dimensions of all other physical
quantities, such as load, deflection, elastic modulus etc., are
retained as such. It is to be noted that the computation is
carried out in normalized coordinate and .
E. Approximate Dynamic Displacement Fields
The dynamic displacements ) , , ( w , ) , , ( u and
) , , ( v are assumed to be separable in space and time and
can be approximately represented by finite linear
combinations of orthogonal admissible functions and
unknown coefficients
i
d . They are expressed as shown
below:
( ) ( ) ( )
i
nw
i
i i
d w , , ,
1
=
=
( ) ( ) ( )
nw i
nu nw
nw i
nw i i
d u

+
+ =

=
1
, , , (11)
( ) ( ) ( )
nu nw i
nv nu nw
nu nw i
nu nw i i
d v

+ +
+ + =

= , , ,
1

where, ) , (
i
, ) , (
i
and ) , (
i
are sets of orthogonal
functions and nw, nu and nv are number of functions for w ,
u and v , respectively. The set of temporal function is
expressed by ( )

i
i
e = , where represents response
frequency of the system under the specified loading. The
functions ) , (
i
describe the displacements due to plate
bending and the start function for this comes from the
flexural boundary condition. The start functions for
stretching of the plate come from the in-plane displacement
boundary conditions. The higher-order functions are
generated from the selected start functions following a two-
dimensional implementation of the Gram-Schmidt
orthogonalization scheme. The approximate two-
dimensional displacement fields require suitable
modification in order to be compatible with stiffeners,
which are one-dimensional elements. An interpolation
function is used on the displacement values to transform the
two-dimensional fields into the one-dimensional
displacement function at the location of the stiffener.
F. Governing System of Equations
Substituting (2), (3), (4), (5), (8), (9), (10), and (11) in (1)
gives the governing set of equations in matrix form,
[ ]{ } [ ]{ } { } f d K d M = +
2
. (12)
[ K ], [ M ] and { } f are stiffness matrix, mass matrix and
load vector respectively. The total stiffness matrix [ ] K in
(12) is given by,
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

= =
+ + + =
y x
ns
q
q
sy
ns
p
p
sx m b
K K K K K
1 1
, [ ]
b
K and
[ ]
m
K being the contributions from bending and stretching
action of the plate, whereas [ ]
p
sx
K and [ ]
q
sy
K are stiffness
matrices of the p-th stiffener along x-direction and q-th
stiffener along y-direction, respectively. The mass matrix is
made up of contributions from the plate ( ] [
p
M ) and the x-
and y-direction stiffeners ( ] [
sx
M and ] [
sy
M ). The load
vector is represented by { } f and { } d is the vector of
unknown coefficients. These vectors as well as the total
stiffness matrix and mass matrix have an order of
(nw+nu+nv).
G. Solution Methodology
Equation (12) represents the governing set of equations
for the stiffened plate and is undoubtedly dynamic in nature.
But solution procedure undertaken in the present scenario
reduces the problem to an equivalent static case, where, the
maximum amplitude of the harmonic excitation and the
frequency of excitation are supplied and the corresponding
undetermined coefficients are calculated. The set of
governing equations (12) are nonlinear in nature as the
stiffness matrix ([ K ]) is a function of the unknown

470
parameters (
i
d ), and hence cannot be solved directly. Two
different solution techniques, namely substitution method
and Broydens method, are utilised to solve the nonlinear
system of equations.
In substitution method the equations are solved through
an iterative procedure utilizing the successive relaxation
scheme. For the maximum amplitude and certain frequency
of harmonic excitation the values of the unknown
coefficients are assumed and based on that, new values of
unknown coefficients are calculated by matrix inversion, as
given by the expression, { } [ ] { } f M K d
1
2
] [ ] [

= .
Calculated values are compared with corresponding values
in the previous iteration and convergence is achieved when
the difference is below a predefined value of error limit ( ).
Otherwise the values of { } d are modified with a relaxation
parameter and they are taken as the next approximation for
the values of { } d . It can be said that the matrix
[ ] ] [ ] [
2
M K is an equivalent stiffness matrix, which
represents the dynamic system stiffness and it depends on
the frequency of loading. It is also important to note that
with increase in the frequency of excitation, the dynamic
stiffness may change its sign and usually it occurs when
1
> , where,
1
is the first natural frequency of the
stiffened plate.
Broyden's [18] method is a multidimensional quasi-
Newton method Ior the numerical solution oI a system oI
nonlinear equations. In this method an initial Jacobian oI the
system is calculated depending on the initial guess value and
in the successive iterations an updated value oI the Jacobian
is used.
The solution procedure is elaborated for particular load
and frequency value setting in the flow chart shown in Fig.
2.

Fig. 2 Flow chart of the solution algorithm

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The present analysis is undertaken for uniaxially single
stiffened rectangular plates under transverse harmonic
excitation. The results are presented as frequency response
curves in non-dimensional frequency-amplitude plane,
where the ordinate represents normalized maximum
amplitude of vibration and the abscissa represents
normalized excitation frequency. In the present study,
maximum amplitude of vibration is normalized by thickness
of the plate, whereas excitation frequency is normalized by
the first linear natural frequency of the system. Two
different types of loading pattern, namely concentrated load
applied at the center of the plate and uniformly distributed
load are considered. The results are generated for a stiffened
plate with simply supported boundary conditions at all the
edges. However, the present formulation and solution
methodology are general in nature and can be applied for
any classical boundary condition.


The number of functions for each of the plate
displacements (u, v and w) is taken as 25. The tolerance
value of the error limit ( ) for the numerical iteration
scheme is taken as 0.50 % and the relaxation parameter ( )
is 0.50. The results are presented for a rectangular stiffened
plate with a = 0.60 m, b = 0.41 m and t
p
= 0.00633 m,
having a y-direction stiffener of rectangular cross-section
(
1
sy
b = 0.0127 m,
1
sy
t = 0.02222 m). Following material
properties are used to generate the results: = =
s p
E E 211
GPa,
p
=
s
= 7830 kg/m
3
and = 0.30.
H. Validation Study
The present method is validated by comparing the results
for an unstiffened clamped square plate analysed by Ribeiro
[15]. The geometric details of the plate are as follows: a = b
= 0.50 m and t
p
= 0.005 m and the material of the plate is
steel with the following properties: =
p
E 210 GPa,
p
=
7800 kg/m
3
and = 0.30. Unstiffened plate is simulated in
the present formulation by considering stiffener dimensions
as zero. Fig. 3 shows the comparison plots generated for a
uniformly distributed harmonic excitation of amplitude 2000
Pa. Comparisons between results of Ribeiro [15] and those
generated by Substitution method and Broyden method are
shown in Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b) respectively. These figures
exhibit excellent agreement with the existing results and
establish the validity of both the present formulation and the
solution methodologies.
Fig. 3(c) shows a comparison between results generated
through the two solution methodologies adapted in the
present analysis. It is evident from the figure that the
Broyden method is convergent over a wider range than the
substitution method. But this method requires more time to
achieve the solution convergence. On the other hand, the
substitution method is computationally efficient and requires
much less processing time. But its domain of applicability is
limited as it can capture only a part of the higher branch of
the response. However, it captures the two branches of the
response curve while an ascending frequency sweep is
performed. Broyden method captures the lower branch of
frequency response when frequency sweeps in descending
manner. It should be mentioned here that both the methods
are dependent on the initial guess values.
To minimize the computation time, first an ascending
frequency sweep is performed through substitution method,
which provides the starting frequency value and an initial
guess for the Broyden method and then the Broyden method
is employed to capture the rest of the response by sweeping
the frequency from lower to higher values. The maximum
value of dimensionless amplitude (
p
t w
max
) is taken as
2.0. The lower branch of response can be obtained by either
of the methods.

Fig. 3 Comparison plots of frequency response of an
unstiffened clamped square plate under uniformly
distributed harmonic excitation: (a) Substitution method and
Ribeiro [15], (b) Broyden method and Ribeiro [15] and (c)
Substitution and Broyden method

472
I. Frequency Response: Loading Pattern
The system response is shown in dimensionless
displacement amplitude vs. frequency of external harmonic
excitation plane, while the amplitude of external excitation
is kept fixed. A family of amplitude-frequency curves can
be generated for different amplitudes of external excitation.
This family of curves for different excitation values
indicates functional relationship of the response amplitude
with the frequency of excitation and is known as the
frequency response of the system. Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b)
shows the normalized frequency response plots for a
centrally single stiffened rectangular plate with simply
supported boundary conditions under uniformly distributed
and central concentrated harmonic loading respectively. In
each of the plots, a family of curves is presented
corresponding to different constant excitation amplitude. It
should be mentioned here that results furnished in the
present paper correspond to only the first natural frequency
of the system. It should be mentioned here that the lower
branch of response is generated upto a point where the
response amplitude starts to increase again.

Fig. 4 Normalized frequency response plots for a uniaxially
single stiffened rectangular plate with simply supported
boundary conditions under (a) uniformly distributed and (b)
central concentrated loading

From the set of figures it is clear that the system exhibits
hardening type nonlinearity. As the forcing amplitude is
lowered the response curve tends towards the backbone
curve of the system. Hence, an idea regarding the nature of
the backbone curve for the fundamental frequency can be
obtained, as these frequency response curves envelope the
backbone curve. In Fig. 4(a) and 4(b) the frequency
response corresponding to low excitation amplitude ( p = 1
kPa and P = 1 kN) closely resemble the backbone curve of
the system.
All the response curves in Fig. 4 show two distinct
regions. At low values of the excitation frequency the
system response is unique and the vibration amplitude
increases monotonically with increase in excitation
frequency. But after a certain frequency value two response
amplitudes are obtained and there exists two branches of
response for a certain frequency range. The higher branch
continues to increase with excitation frequency from the
single valued region, whereas in case of the lower branch a
reverse trend is observed as the vibration amplitude
decreases with increase in frequency. Theoretically the
response curve for a nonlinear system under a harmonic
excitation is made up of three regions, of which two are
stable and experimentally obtainable. Actually, in the multi-
valued interval of the response there are three steady state
analytical solutions for a given excitation frequency. But the
middle one corresponds to an unstable response and hence
cannot be captured experimentally. The present analysis
captures the two stable regions but fails to capture the
unstable region.


The static response of the system can also be determined
from the location where the response curve intersects the
vertical axis, which signifies zero excitation frequency.
J. Frequency Response: Stiffener Position
The effect of the position of the stiffener on the system
response under uniformly distributed excitation is also
studied and presented in Fig. 5. In this figure, a family of
response curves at a fixed value of excitation amplitude
( p = 100 kPa) and corresponding to different stiffener
positions,
stf
= 0.50, 0.40, 0.30 and 0.25, is shown. These
frequency response curves depict similar characteristics as
those discussed in relation to Fig. 4. As the stiffener position
shifts towards one of the ends the system stiffness changes,
so it is expected that the dynamic behaviour of the system
undergoes a change and the first linear natural frequency
also changes.
For better understanding of the nature of influence the
position of the stiffener has on response characteristics Fig.
5 is replotted in Fig. 6 with the abscissa representing forcing
frequency in dimensional form. It is seen from Fig. 6 that
with the stiffener shifting towards the plate boundary the
response curves shift towards lower frequency values for a
given value of amplitude. This is possibly due to decrease in
system stiffness caused by the offset position of the
stiffener. Thus it can be concluded that maximum stiffness
corresponds to a central stiffener position ( 5 . 0 =
stf
). Also
it is noticed that for a particular value of exciting frequency
the maximum response amplitude is higher for stiffened
plates with offset position of the stiffeners. It should be kept
in mind that the location of maximum amplitude (
max
w ) for
the cases shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6 are different. For
symmetric stiffener position ( 5 . 0 =
stf
) the maximum
amplitude is at the two central positions of the two equal
sized panels, whereas for the offset stiffener position it
occurs on the larger of the two panels.

Fig. 5 Normalized frequency response plots for a uniaxially
single stiffened rectangular plate with simply supported
boundary conditions under UDL for different stiffener
position

Fig. 6 Frequency response plots for a uniaxially single
stiffened rectangular plate with simply supported boundary
conditions under UDL for different stiffener position


474
IV. CONCLUSION
In the present paper large amplitude forced vibration
analysis of stiffened plates subjected to transverse harmonic
excitation is undertaken using variational formulation. The
forced vibration analysis is carried out in an indirect manner
reducing the problem to an equivalent static case. The
results are validated with the published results in literature
and fairly good agreement is observed. Results are presented
as frequency response curves in non-dimensional frequency-
amplitude plane. The system response is studied for two
types of loading, namely uniformly distributed and central
concentrated load. Effect of variation in stiffener position on
system response is also studied. The system responses
indicate a hardening type nonlinearity and two stable zones
of the response curve is obtained. It is observed that, as the
amplitude of load reduces, the nonlinear response of the
system tends to attain the shape of backbone curve.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The first author acknowledges the research support
received from AICTE, India, vide File No.:1-
10/RID/NDF/PG/(17)2008-09 Dated : 13.03.2009.

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