Abstract:Based on the deformation hypothesis of Timoshenko's plates and the Boltzmann's superposition principles for linear viscoelastic materials, the nonlinear equations governing the dynamical behavior of Timoshenko's viscoelastic thick plates with damage were derived,and the Galerkin method was applied to simplify the equations. The numerical methods in nonlinear dynamical systems were used to solve the simplified systems. It could be seen that there are plenty of dynamical properties for dynamical systems formed by this kind of viscoelastic thick plates with damage under a transverse harmonic load. The influences of load, geometry and material parameters on the dynamical behavior of the nonlinear system were investigated,and the effect of damage on the dynamical behavior of plate was discussed.