Nonlinear bending of shear deformable laminated plates under transverse and in-plane loads and resting on elastic foundations

A nonlinear bending analysis is presented for a simply supported, shear deformable composite laminated plate subjected to combined uniform lateral pressure and compressive edge loads and resting on a two-parameter (Pasternak-type) elastic foundation. The formulations are based on Reddy's higher order shear deformation plate theory (HSDPT), including the plate-foundation interaction. The analysis uses a perturbation technique to determine the load-deflection curves and load-bending moment curves. Numerical examples are presented that relate to the performances of antisymmetric angle-ply and symmetric cross-ply laminated plates subjected to combined loading and resting on two-parameter elastic foundations from which results for Winkler elastic foundations are obtained as a limiting case. The effects played by foundation stiffness, plate aspect ratio, total number of plies, fiber orientation, transverse shear deformation and initial compressive load are studied. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.