Bending and Stretching Elements for Analysis of Thick Composite Plates

Abstract

Plate bending and stretching elements are developed for the analysis of thick composite plates. This method of analysis takes into account the influence of the transverse normal strain in addition to the transverse shear effects. The refined theory of plates used in this work yields a bending‐extension coupling. The plate‐bending element is used to determine the average transverse displacement w¯, the average rotations ϕx and ϕy, and the stress resultants Qx,Qy,Mx,My, and Mxy of the plate. For the computation of the stresses σx,σy, and τxy, an additional plate element is developed for the determination of the in‐plane displacements and forces. The combined effects of the plate bending and in‐plane elements are used for the complete solution of the problem. Several examples are solved using the developed plate elements, and results are compared with their corresponding exact solutions wherever possible.