A global-local higher order theory including interlaminar stress continuity and C0 plate bending element for cross-ply laminated composite plates

A C-0-type global-local higher order theory including interlaminar stress continuity is proposed for the cross-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates in this paper, which is able to a priori satisfy the continuity conditions of transverse shear stresses at interfaces. Moreover, total number of unknowns involved in the model is independent of number of layers. Compared to other higher-order theories satisfying the continuity conditions of transverse shear stresses at interfaces, merit of the proposed model is that the first derivatives of transverse displacement w have been taken out from the in-plane displacement fields, so that the C-0 interpolation functions is only required during its finite element implementation. To verify the present model, a C-0 three-node triangular element is used for bending analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates. It ought to be shown that all variables involved in present model are discretized by only using linear interpolation functions within an element. Numerical results show that the C-0 plate element based on the present theory may accurately calculate transverse shear stresses without any postprocessing, and the present results agree well with those obtained from the C-1-type higher order theory. Compared with the C-1 plate bending element, the present finite element is simple, convenient to use and accurate enough.