Wavenumber dynamic stiffness formulation for exact dispersion analysis of moderately thick symmetric cross-ply laminated plate built-up waveguides

A wavenumber dynamic stiffness (WDS) formulation for exact dispersion analysis of moderately thick symmetric cross-ply laminated plate built-up waveguides is presented. The effects of shear deformation and rotatory inertia are considered in the formulation by adopting the first order shear deformation theory. The elemental WDS matrix is derived from the exact general solutions of the governing differential equations and can be assembled to model complex plate built-up waveguides using the assembly procedure similar to that of the finite element method. The nonlinear eigen-solution technique, the Wittrick-Williams (WW) algorithm, is employed to compute dispersion curves from the obtained WDS matrices. To enhance computational efficiency, the J0 0 count problem of the WW algorithm is addressed by developing explicit expressions for the J0 0 term. This eliminates the need for mesh refinement over the entire frequency/wavenumber range. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are demonstrated through comparisons with analytical solutions based on the classical laminated plate theory and the first order shear deformation theory, as well as numerical results obtained from the wave and finite element method.