Abstract
In order to study the vibration characteristics of fluid-structure interaction problem, two rectangular plates coupled with bounded fluid were investigated. Experimental modal analyses were carried out to extract the modal parameters of the system. Additionally. finite element modal analyses performed using a commercial computer code, ANSYS. The FEM solutions were compared with the experimental solutions to verify the finite element model. As a result, the comparison between the experiment and FEM results showed excellent agreement. The transverse vibration modes, in-phase and out-of-phase, were observed alternately in the fluid-coupled system. The thickness effect of the plates on the fluid-coupled natural frequencies and mode shapes was investigated for two different cases with the identical thickness and the unequal thickness. It was found that the coupled natural frequencies increase with the thickness for the identical plates regardless of the mode phase. The experimental and the finite element analysis results showed that the out-of-phase mode shapes were deviated from the symmetrical mode shapes in the plate transverse direction fur the unequal plate thickness case.