Thermal effect on frequencies of an orthotropic rectangular plate of linearly varying thickness

An analysis is presented here of the effect of a constant thermal gradient on free axisymmetric vibrations of an orthotropic elastic rectangular plate of linearly varying thickness. The governing differential equation of motion is solved by Frobenius' method. The frequencies corresponding to the first two modes of vibrations are obtained for an orthotropic rectangular plate with different combinations of boundary conditions for various values of taper constant and the temperature gradient.