Behaviour of Shear Deformable Plate Bending Finite Elements for Composites

Abstract

A thorough study of the behaviour of shear deformable plate bending finite elements is carried out to investigate their performance when applied to static and free vibration analyses of Iaminated composite plates. 4-noded, 8-noded and 9-noded quadrilateral isoparametricfinite elements based on first-order shear deformation theory and a 4-noded element based on higher-order shear deformation theory are considered. The numerical results indicating the effect of order of integration on the accuracy of the results and convergence of transverse displacements and stresses are presented. The resuLts indicate that a 4-noded element with seven degrees offreedom per node based on higher-order shear deformation theory is required to predict the deflection as well as the stresses accurately and a I 6x I 6 mesh division for full plate is necessary for obtaining converged resuLts. For the case offree vibration analysis, the element based onfirst-order shear deformation theory is found to be sufficient.