Search

A new four-node quadrilateral plate that accounts for shear deformation effect and all couplings from the material anisotropy is developed for laminated composite plates. Lagrangian linear interpolation functions are used to describe the primary variables corresponding to the in-plane displacements, while Hermitian cubic interpolation functions are considered for the transverse displacement. Since the present element is derived based on a refined plate theory that has strong similarity with the classical plate theory, it is capable of modeling both thin and very thick plates without shear locking. The accuracy of the present formulation is verified by comparing the results obtained with those available in the open literature. Numerical results are presented to investigate the effects of thickness ratio, lamination angle and lay-up on the shear deformation and response of laminates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A nonlocal sinusoidal plate model for micro/nanoscale plates is developed based on Eringen’s nonlocal elasticity theory and sinusoidal shear deformation plate theory. The small-scale effect is considered in the former theory while the transverse shear deformation effect is included in the latter theory. The proposed model accounts for sinusoidal variations of transverse shear strains through the thickness of the plate, and satisfies the stress-free boundary conditions on the plate surfaces, thus a shear correction factor is not required. Equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived from Hamilton’s principle. Analytical solutions for bending, buckling, and vibration of simply supported plates are presented, and the obtained results are compared with the existing solutions. The effects of small scale and shear deformation on the responses of the micro/nanoscale plates are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An improved transverse shear stiffness for vibration and buckling analysis of functionally graded sandwich plates based on the first-order shear deformation theory is proposed in this paper. The transverse shear stress obtained from the in-plane stress and equilibrium equation allows to analytically derive an improved transverse shear stiffness and associated shear correction factor of the functionally graded sandwich plate. Sandwich plates with functionally graded faces and both homogeneous hardcore and softcore are considered. The material property is assumed to be isotropic at each point and vary through the plate thickness according to a power-law distribution of the volume fraction of the constituents. Equations of motion and boundary conditions are derived from Hamilton’s principle. The Navier-type solutions are obtained for simply supported boundary conditions, and exact formulae are proposed and compared with the existing solutions to verify the validity of the developed model. Numerical results are obtained for simply supported functionally graded sandwich plates made of three sets of material combinations of metal and ceramic, Al/Al2O3, Al/SiC and Al/WC to investigate the effects of the power-law index, thickness ratio of layer, material contrast on the shear correction factors, natural frequencies and critical buckling loads as well as load–frequency curves. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents analytical solutions for buckling analysis of functionally graded plate based on a refined plate theory. Based on the refined shear deformation theory, the position of neutral surface is determined and the governing stability equations based on neutral surface are derived. There is no stretching–bending coupling effect in the neutral surface-based formulation, and consequently, the governing equations and boundary conditions of functionally graded plates based on neutral surface have the simple forms as those of isotropic plates. The closed-form solutions of buckling load are obtained for rectangular plates with various boundary conditions. The accuracy of neutral surface-based model is verified by comparing the obtained results with those reported in the literature. Finally, parameter studies are carried out to study the effects of power law index, thickness ratio, and aspect ratio on the critical buckling load of functionally graded plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]