BIDIRECTIONAL BENDING OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES USING AN IMPROVED ZIGZAG MODEL

The behaviour of simply supported rectangular symmetric cross-ply laminated composite Plates subjected to bidirectional bending is determined using an improved zig-zag displacement model. The zig-zag model is based upon a layerwise cubic variation of the in-plane displacements and a parabolic variation of the transverse shear stresses with zero values at the free surfaces. By satisfying the continuity conditions of the in-plane displacements and the transverse shear stresses at the interfaces, the number of variables is shown to be the same as that in the first-order shear deformation theory of Mindlin, independent of the number of layers in the laminate. The accuracy of the model and its suitability for use in engineering design is examined by applying it to four established bidirectional bending problems which have been solved by Pagano using exact elasticity theory. The numerical results indicate that the present model predicts very accurate results for displacements and stresses for symmetric cross-ply laminates, even for small length-to-thickness ratios.