Abstract: A nonlinear dynamic model of a thin rectangular plate attached to a moving rigid was established by employing the general Hamilton's variational principle. Based on the new model, it is proved theoretically that both phenomena of dynamic stiffening and dynamic softening can occur in the plate when the rigid undergoes different large overall motions including overall translational and rotary motions. It was also proved that dynamic
softening effect even can make the trivial equilibrium of the plate lose its stability through bifurcation. Assumed modes method was employed to validate the theoretical result and analyze the approximately critical bifurcation value and the post-buckling equilibria.