Analytical solution of forced vibration of rectangular plates with part through surface crack based on wave propagation method

An analytical wave propagation framework is developed in this study for steady state forced vibration of plates with part through surface cracks for the first time. Rectangular thin plates with partial-width and full-width cracks are considered. The analytical waves are obtained by solving the dual equations of the plate established considering the line–spring model (LSM) of crack. The dual equations formed here are characterized by simultaneously solving kinematic variables and their dual dynamic variables. Both conventional and refined LSMs are considered. Two ways are proposed to generate the system equation in wave space based on the relationships of wave propagation, wave reflection and wave scattering. Compared with the traditional methods, most of them can only give exact analytical solutions under the condition of opposite-side simply supported boundaries, the developed analysis framework can treat arbitrary combinations of simple boundary condition of the cracked plate. Comparisons of results of the proposed method with those from the literature and finite element method (FEM) validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. A series of parametric studies for investigating the effects of length, position and depth of crack on the forced response of cracked plate are also presented. The proposed framework are effective for predicting the forced responses and natural frequencies of thin plates with part-through surface cracks.