A CLASS OF C(0) FINITE-ELEMENTS FOR THE STATIC AND DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED PLATES

A general higher-order deformation theory is developed to analyse the behaviour of an arbitrary laminated fibre-reinforced composite plate. Three-dimensional effects such as the warping of sections and the presence of interlaminar stress field components are taken into account assuming a power series expansion of displacements along the thickness. A class of C0 finite element models based on this theory is then developed for mono- and bi-dimensional elements. Applications of the models to bending and vibration of laminated plates are then discussed. The present solutions are compared with those obtained using the three-dimensional elasticity theory, classical laminate theory and other higher-order theories.