Wave receptance analysis of vibrating beams and stiffened plates

This study develops analytical methods for the analysis of harmonically forced vibrations of multi-supported beams and stiffened plates. The methods are based on the response of infinite, uninterrupted structures to a single external excitation from which families of waves propagate outwards in all directions. The structures considered are uniform in thickness. The beams have a single-point force. The plates are finite in width with the two opposite parallel edges being simply-supported along the length. A line forcing varies sinusoidally between those edges. The first part of the thesis analyses the dynamics of infinite, uninterrupted structures. Special attention is subsequently paid to three-layered sandwich structures and their dispersion characteristics are also investigated. The second part considers finite structures. An analytical approach is presented for single-bay and multi-bay structures with arbitrary support spacing. Influences of support elastic/inertial characteristics are investigated in detail. Effects of end reflections are fully dealt with. The third part deals with the free and forced vibrations of infinite, periodic structures. Particular attention is focused on the effects of stiffness characteristics and cross-sectional distortion of the stiffeners. Part four outlines experimental work undertaken to validate the above theories. The experimental and theoretical results are compared