The method suggested has a couple of problems. They are as follows:<br>
<br>
1.) It was assumed that the entire mass of the plate is lumped at the center. This is not correct, and will give a natural frequency that is too low, because the effective mass is too large. To get a more realistic result, Rayleigh's method (see any good vibrations text for details) should be used. Although the exact mode shape is unknown, the approprate number of half sine waves in the x and y direction to match the boundary conditions and midspan displacement should give a closer result.<br>
<br>
2.) It was assumed that the force-deflection characteristics of the plate are linear. This is true only if the maximum deflection is much smaller than the plate thickness, and the plate span is much larger than the plate thickness. Larger deflections will lead to membrane stresses in addition to the bending stresses in the plate, which causes the plate to effectively become stiffer as deflections get larger. This will cause the natural frequency of vibration to be amplitude dependant. This also has benefits, as it limits the maximum displacement at resonance.