Trefftz functions for a plate vibration problem

The paper presents a new method to obtain an approximate solution to plate vibrations problems. The problem is described by a partial differential equation of fourth order. The key idea of the presented approach is to find polynomials (solving functions) that satisfy the considered differential equation identically. In this sense, it is a variant of the Trefftz method. The method is addressed to differential equations in a finite domain. The approach proposed here has some advantages. The first is that the approximate solution (a linear combination of the solving functions) satisfies the equation identically. Secondly, the method is flexible in terms of given boundary and initial conditions (discrete, missing). Thirdly, the solving functions can be used as base functions for several variants of the Finite Element Method. In this case, the approximation is good even for relatively large elements. It means that the approach is suitable for inverse problems. The formulas for solving functions and their derivatives for the plate vibration equation are obtained. The convergence of the method is proved and numerical examples are included.