DISTORTED SIMILITUDES FOR THE FREQUENCY RESPONSE OF COMPOSITE PLATES

This work presents an investigation on the definition and applicability of distorted similitudes and the related scaling laws for the analysis of the dynamic forced response of rectangular composite plates. Such responses are determined from a generalization of the modal approach, which allows the use of the mode shapes and natural frequencies in order to establish the proper scaling laws. The cases, herein discussed, are exclusively theoretical and form the basis for the application of numerical methods such as the Finite Element Method. Analytical models of simply supported rectangular plates are used to produce both the original and distorted model responses. The results show that even in the case of distorted models it is possible to reproduce with reasonable accuracy the response of the original plate.