Exact and Approximate Linear and Nonlinear Initial Failure Analysis of Laminated Mindlin Plates in Flexure

Abstract

Exact Navier and approximate finite-difference dynamic relaxation (DR) solutions of the small deflection Mindlin plate equations are combined with six failure criteria to carry out initial flexural failure analyses of nine laminated rectangular simply supported plates previously analysed by Reddy and Pandey.15 Although the initial failure results derived from the present exact and approximate analyses agree well, in many instances (particularly for the thinner plates) they show poor agreement with corresponding results (derived from finite element analysis) presented in Ref. 15. The results obtained by the authors suggest that all six failure criteria lead to roughly similar initial failure pressures (which are generally lower than given in Ref. 15) and, therefore, they do not support Reddy and Pandey’s conclusion that the Tsai-Hill criterion is conservative for failure in flexure.