Time-frequency analysis of plate-shell coupled structures under moving stochastic load

•Study the nonstationary responses for the closed plate-shell structure under moving random load.•Develop a full-domain stochastic dynamic system by introducing the PEM into the MRRM.•Discuss the evolving PSD and time-varying RMS of different types of substructures.•Reveal the effect of modal damping ratios on the critical velocities of the system. Random vibration is of critical importance in understanding the dynamic behavior of engineering structures, especially the nonstationary responses for their coupled enclosers consisting of plates and shells subjected to moving stochastic loads. In this study, the pseudo excitation method (PEM) is integrated into the method of reverberation ray matrix (MRRM) to establish a full-domain stochastic dynamic system. With the help of rearrangement matrices and coupling spring connection technologies, the two plate-shell models of sequential and reinforced coupling are considered by employing the simple first-order shear deformation shell theory (S-FSDST) and Hamilton's principle. Then, the continuous movement of the excitation between each substructure is achieved through load coordinate normalization in nonhomogeneous equations, which are separated from the generalized solutions in the frequency domain. Therefore, it can be easily converted into a global pseudo-excitation and obtain the time-history responses relying on the inverse Laplace transform. After matching the present results with the finite element software and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed RRM-PEM are well-confirmed. Finally, by performing a series of numerical cases of power spectral density (PSD) and time-varying root mean square (RMS) under different loading velocities, frequency bands and system modal dampings, the time-frequency rules for different substructures of closed plate-shell coupled system under moving random loads are revealed for the first time. [Display omitted]