A boundary element method is developed for the dynamic analysis of plates with variable thickness. The plate may have arbitrary shape and its boundary may be subjected to any type of boundary conditions. The non-uniform thickness of the plate is an arbitrary function of the coordinatesx, y. Both free and forced vibrations are considered. The method utilizes the fundamental solution of the static problem of the plate with constant thickness to establish the integral representation for the deflection and, subsequently, by employing an efficient Gauss integration technique for domain integrals the equation of motion is derived as a discrete system of simultaneous ordinary differential equations with respect to the deflections at the Gauss integration nodal points. The equation of motion can be solved using the known techniques for multi-degrees of freedom systems. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the method and to demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy.
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