Comparison of Various Shear Deformation Theories for Bending, Buckling, and Vibration of Rectangular Symmetric Cross-ply Plate with Simply Supported Edges

Abstract

In the present study, unified shear deformation theory which was proposed by Soldatos, K.P. and Timarci, T. (1993). A Unified Formulation of Laminated Composite, Shear Deformable Five-degrees-of-freedom Cylindrical Shells on the Basis of a Unified Shear Deformable Shell Theory, Compos. Struct., 25(1–4): 165–171 is used to analyze simply supported symmetric cross-ply rectangular plates for deflections, stresses, natural frequencies, and buckling loads. This theory enables the selection of different in-plane displacement components to represent shear deformation. Exponential shear deformation theory, which is proposed by Karama et al., 40(6) (2003). Mechanical Behavior of Laminated Composite Beam by New Multi-layered Laminated Composite Structures Model with Transverse Shear Stress Continuity, Int J Solids Struct., 40: 1525–1546, is used for the first time to analyze the problem considered. Results which are found by exponential theory are compared with those obtained by using the parabolic shear deformation theory of Reddy, J.N., 51(4) (1984). A Simple Higher-order Theory for Laminated Composite Plates, J Appl Mech., 51: 745–752, the trigonometric shear deformation theory of Touratier, M., 29(8) (1991). An Efficient Standard Plate Theory, Int. Jnl. Engng. Sci., 29(8): 901–916, the hyperbolic shear deformation theory of Soldatos, K.P., 94(3–4) (1992). A Transverse Shear Deformation Theory for Homogeneous Monoclinic Plates, Acta Mech., 94: 1995–220 and with the available three-dimensional elasticity solutions. The study shows that while the transverse displacement and the stresses are best predicted by the exponential shear deformation theory, the parabolic shear deformation and the hyperbolic shear deformation theories yield more accurate predictions for the natural frequencies and the buckling loads.