A Composite Plate Theory for Arbitrary Laminate Configurations

In order to improve the accuracy of in-plane responses of shear deformable composite plate theories, a new laminated plate theory was developed for arbitrary laminate configurations based upon Reissner’s (1984) new mixed variational principle. To this end, across each individual layer, piecewise linear continuous displacements and quadratic transverse shear stress distributions were assumed. The accuracy of the present theory was examined by applying it to the cylindrical bending problem of laminated plates which had been solved exactly by Pagano (1969). A comparison with the exact solutions obtained for symmetric, antisymmetric, and arbitrary laminates indicates that the present theory accurately estimates in-plane responses, even for small span-to-thickness ratios.