Analysis of deflections and stresses for laminated composite plates based on a new higher-order shear deformation theory

Based on the new simple third-order shear deformation theory, the deflections and stresses of the simply supported symmetrical laminated composite plates are obtained by using the principle of virtual work .The solutions are compared with the solutions of three-dimensional elasticity theory, the first-order shear deformation theory and the Reddy's higher order shear deformation theory. Results show that the presented new theory is more reliable, accurate, and cost-effective in computation than the first-order shear deformation theories and other simple higher-order shear deformation theories.