Transient response of initially stressed composite sandwich plates

This paper deals with the transient response of initially stressed composite sandwich plates under time dependent sine, step, triangular and explosive blast loadings. Formulations for a family of assumed strain finite element formulations are developed on the basis of the first-order shear deformation theory with a priori shear correction factors. The developed finite elements contain three displacements and two rotations of the normals about the plate's mid-plane. The terms in the energy formulation are integrated exactly using a full integration scheme. The mass matrix adopted here is consistent in nature. The Newmark scheme is used to integrate the governing equations of motion. The accuracy and reliability of the present finite element formulation is verified with previously published results in the literature. New results are presented to examine the effects of alternative loadings, boundary conditions and plate geometries. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.