Vibration and buckling of composite beams using refined shear deformation theory

Vibration and buckling analysis of composite beams with arbitrary lay-ups using refined shear deformation theory is presented. The theory accounts for the parabolical variation of shear strains through the depth of beam. Three governing equations of motion are derived from Hamilton's principle. The resulting coupling is referred to as triply coupled vibration and buckling. A two-noded C-1 beam element with five degree-of-freedom per node which accounts for shear deformation effects and all coupling coming from the material anisotropy is developed to solve the problem. Numerical results are obtained for composite beams to investigate effects of fibre orientation and modulus ratio on the natural frequencies, critical buckling loads and corresponding mode shapes. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.