Natural frequencies of free flexural vibration of rectangular plates may, in many cases, be considerably increased by attaching to the plate one or more elastic stiffening ribs parallel to one edge, or by casting or machining the plate and stiffeners integrally.

Hoppmann has determined by a semi-empirical method the natural frequencies of an integrally stiffened simply-supported square plate, using the concept of a homogeneous orthotropic plate of uniform thickness having elastic compliances which are equivalent to those of the stiffened plate. Filippov has obtained the exact solution for the fundamental frequency of a simply-supported square plate having a number of equally spaced stiffeners and has considered the effect of point loads applied to the stiffeners in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the plate.