Abstract
For vibration analysis of stiffened plates the orthotropic plate analogy is commonly accepted. As to stiffened plates in contact with water, however, there is still much uncertainty in estimation of the added mass because of the lack of direct methods. The authors, considering that for added mass of plates there are many reliable data derived theoretically or experimentally available, suggest a method to estimate the added mass of a stiffened plate by combining the mass increase factor, $\beta$, of an equivalent orthotropic plate and the correction factor, $\kappa$, for the effects of stiffeners. The latter is to be derived from systematic experimental investigations. Then, the natural frequency in water, f', can be calculated from that in air, f, by the equation $f'=f/\sqrt{1+\kappa\beta}$. To investigate practical applicability of this method, a systematic experiment was carried out with five uniaxially stiffened plates. Each of them had a plate of same size, $600mm{\times}600mm{\times}3.2mm$, but stiffeners of different size in the web-depth, 41.6mm, 51.2mm or 66.8mm and of different spacing 75mm, 100mm, or 150mm. Natural frequencies were measured under simply supported-edge conditions in both air and water, and corresponding $\kappa$ values derived. In spite of wide variations of web-depth and spcae of stiffeners, the experimental results show that the diversity of $\kappa$ values is not remarkable; mean values of $\kappa$ are 1.31 with standard deviation of 0.025 for the first modes and 1.27 with that 0.077 for the second modes. Hence, the authors concluded that the above $\kappa$ values can be used generally for the cases of uniaxially stiffened plates both sides of which contact with water, and that $\kappa$ values of general use for the cases of cross-stiffened plates may also be obtainable from similar experiments.
