Bending of Thick Rectangular Plates Laminated of Bimodulus Composite Materials

Abstract

A mixed finite-element analysis is presented for static behavior of rectangular plates laminated of composite materials having finite transverse shear moduli and different elastic properties depending upon whether the fiber-direction strains are tensile or compressive. As a benchmark to assess the validity and accuracy of the finite-element analysis, a closed-form solution is given for a two-layer, cross-ply plate having all edges simply supported without in-plane restraint and subjected to sinusoidally distributed normal pressure. Numerical results obtained by the two methods are compared and found to agree quite well.