 Dispersion relation of a floating elastic plate

For bending stiffness $D$ and mass per area $m$, a plane wave of surface displacement $\eta$ satisfies $m{\eta }_{tt}+D{\nabla }_H^4\eta =p$. An inviscid deep-water velocity potential has vertical dependence $e^{kz}$; the kinematic boundary condition and linear Bernoulli equation give $p=({\rho }_w{\omega }^2/k-{\rho }_{w}g)\eta$. Eliminating $p$ gives the displayed dispersion relation. With water depth $d$, replace it by ${\omega }^2=(gk+D{k}^5/{\rho }_w)\tanh (kd)/[1+(m/{\rho }_w)k\tanh (kd)]$.