Abstract
Variable Stiffness Composites (VSCs) have been lately proposed as a promising alternative to classical straight fibres composites where the variation of fibres orientation angle within the plane of the structure allows for a more general design of composite structures and consequent performances. Nevertheless, this new class of materials calls for new modelling techniques due to a higher complexity in their analysis related to an increased amount of design variables that is usually considered. In order to overcome these difficulties, Carrera’s Unified Formulation has been used in previous works investigating buckling, vibrational and stress analyses on VSCs. Usually, one-dimensional Carrera’s Unified Formulation beam models are used, while two-dimensional plate models are obtained as a particular case of shells by considering a null curvature. In most cases, a linear law is considered to describe the variation of fibres orientation in the main plane of the structure. The purpose of this article is developing a Carrera’s Unified Formulation two-dimensional plate finite element family for the mechanical analysis of composite laminated plate structures with curvilinear fibres using, besides the Principle of Virtual Displacements (PVD), Reissner’s Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT). The outcomes of the proposed approach when investigating VSC plates is compared with the results present in the literature or obtained via commercial software tools in order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed models.
