In this paper, the flexural vibrations of a simply supported rectangular plate under travelling distributed loads are investigated. Both gravity and inertia effects of the distributed loads are taken into consideration. The solution technique is based on the two-dimensional finite Fourier Sine integral transformations and a modification of the Struble’s asymptotic technique. The closed form solutions are obtained and numerical analyses in plotted curves are presented. Results show that as the foundation moduli K and rotatory inertia correction factor  increase, the response amplitudes of the dynamical system decrease. Analyses further show that for the same natural frequency, the critical speed for the moving distributed mass problem is smaller than that of the moving distributed force problem. Hence resonance is reached earlier in the moving distributed mass problem. Furthermore, it is clearly seen that the response amplitude of the moving distributed mass system is higher than that of the moving distributed force system for fixed values of rotatory inertia correction factor and foundation moduli. Thus, for the simply supported moving distributed load problem, it is established that the moving distributed force solution is not an upper bound for an accurate solution of the moving distributed mass problem. Results obtained compare well with relevant studies in the literature.

travelling distributed loads, moving distributed force, moving distributed mass.