02-08-2014

CE 5166
FE Project 1: Modal Analysis of a Simple-Supported Rectangular Plate
1) Finite Element Code used: Abaqus

2) Project Description :
Modal analysis of a simply-supported thin plate using exact
solution and finite element analysis (FEA). Two mesh conditions
(10x6 and 20x12) were considered.
Mode shapes and the percentage errors for both mesh
conditions are also observed and the results are documented in this
report.

3) Project Objectives :
This is a modal analysis which compares the exact solution to
the approximate values of finite element analysis (FEA). This
project also shows how the exact solution of the simply-supported
thin plate compares to the FEA analysis when different element
sizes are used.










4) Results:
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Contour plots of mode shapes for (m=1, n=1) and (m=2, n=2) for
case 1 and case 2

Plot 1a: Case 1, 10x6 mesh, m=1, n=1


Plot 1b: Case 1, 10x6 mesh, m=2, n=2

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Plot 1c: Case 2, 20x12 mesh, m=1, n=1


Plot 1d: Case 2, 20x12 mesh, m=2, n=2


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Table 1: Natural Frequencies (rad/sec) for Exact Cases 1 and 2,
and Percent Errors for Cases 1 and 2
Mode
Number
m n
Natural
Frequencies
Exact Case1 and 2
(Rad/Sec)
Natural
Frequencies
FEA
Case 1
Percent
Error
Case 1
Natural
Frequencies
FEA
Case 2
Percent
Error
Case 2
1 1 1 911.80 926.99 1.67 909.12 0.29
2 2 1 1635.88 1670.31 2.10 1628.25 0.47
3 3 1 2842.68 3037.81 6.86 2857.48 0.52
4 1 2 2923.14 3275.50 12.05 2979.06 1.91
5 2 2 3647.22 3945.81 8.19 3668.86 0.59
6 4 1 4532.21 5182.52 14.35 4631.05 2.18
7 3 2 4854.02 5251.09 8.18 4850.89 0.06
8 1 3 6275.36 7194.78 14.65 6563.88 4.60
9 4 2 6543.54 8400.72 28.38 6615.40 1.10
10 5 1 6704.45 8709.18 29.90 6999.75 4.40



0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
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F
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Mode Numbers
Mode Numbers vs Natural Frequencies
Natural Frequencies Exact
Case1 and 2 (Rad/Sec)
Natural Frequencies FEA Case 1
Natural Frequencies FEA Case 2
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Plot 2: Plot of Natural Frequencies vs Mode Number for Exact,
Case 1 and 2

Plot 3: Plot of Natural Frequencies Percentage error vs Mode
Number for Cases 1 and 2

5) Discussion of Plot 3:
Using the exact results as the baseline, plot three shows that
case 2 percent error is less than case 1, this indicates that as the
finite element analysis mesh becomes more refined, the percent
error in the FEA results becomes smaller.
The natural frequencies error tends to increase as the mode
shape becomes wavier i.e. going from (m=1, n=1) to (m=2, n=2).
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
P
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Mode Numbers
Mode Number vs Percent Errors
Percent Error Case 1
Percent Error Case 2