HYDROELASTIC VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF TWO FLEXIBLE RECTANGULAR PLATES PARTIALLY COUPLED WITH A LIQUID

This paper deals with a hydroelastic vibration analysis of two rectangular plates partially coupled with a liquid, which is bounded by two plates and two rigid side walls. The wet displacement of each plate is assumed to be a combination of the modal functions of a dry uniform beam with a clamped boundary condition. As the liquid is assumed to be an ideal liquid, the displacement potential satisfying the Laplace equation is determined so that the liquid boundary conditions can meet the requirements at the rigid surfaces and the free liquid surface. The wet dynamic modal functions of each plate are expanded by using the finite Fourier transform to obtain an appropriate form of the compatibility requirement along the contacting surfaces between the plates and the liquid. The liquid-coupled natural frequencies of the plates are derived by using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Finite element analyses using commercial software are carried out to verify the proposed theory. It is observed that the theoretical method agrees excellently with the three-dimensional finite element analyses results. The effects of the liquid depth and the liquid thickness on the normalized natural frequencies are investigated to identify the dynamic characteristics of the liquid coupled system.