Stress and Deflection of Laminated Composite Plates Based on Refined PlateTheory

Abstract

A higher-order refined mathematical model has been formulated to analyze the stress and deflection of laminated composite plates. The displacement functions of the laminated composite satisfy both the upper and lower surfaces of the plate and account for the parabolic variation of transverse shear stress across the plate thickness without applying shear correction factors. The displacement functions are used to derive the strain-displacement relations and incorporate with the equation of motion for simple supported laminated plates based on Hamilton’s principle. The Finite element techniques are used through eigenvalue formulation by using Navier’s solution technique The analytical solutions of the present refined plate are compared with exact theories. Comparison studies show that the developed refined model achieves accuracy and is computationally efficient.