Nonlinear dynamic instability analysis of laminated composite thin plates subjected to periodic in-plane loads

In this paper, the dynamic instability of thin laminated composite plates subjected to harmonic in-plane loading is studied based on nonlinear analysis. The equations of motion of the plate are developed using von Karman-type of plate equation including geometric nonlinearity. The nonlinear large deflection plate equations of motion are solved by using Galerkin’s technique that leads to a system of nonlinear Mathieu-Hill equations. Dynamically unstable regions, and both stable- and unstable-solution amplitudes of the steady-state vibrations are obtained by applying the Bolotin’s method. The nonlinear dynamic stability characteristics of both antisymmetric and symmetric cross-ply laminates with different lamination schemes are examined. A detailed parametric study is conducted to examine and compare the effects of the orthotropy, magnitude of both tensile and compressive longitudinal loads, aspect ratios of the plate including length-to-width and length-to-thickness ratios, and in-plane transverse wave number on the parametric resonance particularly the steady-state vibrations amplitude. The present results show good agreement with that available in the literature.