Frequency Domain Spectral Element Model for the Vibration Analysis of a Thin Plate with Arbitrary Boundary Conditions

We propose a new spectral element model for finite rectangular plate elements with arbitrary boundary conditions. The new spectral element model is developed by modifying the boundary splitting method used in our previous study so that the four corner nodes of a finite rectangular plate element become active. Thus, the new spectral element model can be applied to any finite rectangular plate element with arbitrary boundary conditions, while the spectral element model introduced in the our previous study is valid only for finite rectangular plate elements with four fixed corner nodes. The new spectral element model can be used as a generic finite element model because it can be assembled in any plate direction. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the new spectral element model are validated by a comparison with exact solutions, solutions obtained by the standard finite element method, and solutions from the commercial finite element analysis package ANSYS.