COMPOSITE

STRUCTURES
Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287

Buckling and free vibration of non-homogeneous composite cross-ply

laminated plates with various plate theories
M.E. Fares ap*,A.M. Zenkour b
a Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, Mansoura University, Egypt
b Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Education, Kajii El-Sheikh, Egypt

Abstract
Various theories of homogeneous laminated plates are extended to study the buckling and free vibration behavior of non-ho-
mogeneous rectangular composite laminates. The equations governing the dynamic response of non-homogeneous composite
laminates are deduced. Numerical results for the natural frequencies and critical buckling loads of symmetric cross-ply laminates are
presented. The influences of the degree of non-homogeneity, aspect ratio, thickness ratio and in-plane orthotropy ratio on the
natural frequencies and critical buckling loads are investigated. The results obtained for homogeneous cases are compared with their
counterparts in the literature. The study concludes that the classical plate theory is inadequate for predicting the structural response
of non-homogeneous laminates, and that the free vibration and the state of the stability are affected strongly by the degree of non-
homogeneity. 0 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Buckling and free vibration; Non-homogeneous laminated plates

1. Introduction and Reddy [6] have reviewed these developments. Ex-

tension of the first-order theory to laminated anisotropic
Due to their high stiffness-to-weight ratio and the plates has not been as successful as it has been for iso-
flexible anisotropic property that can be tailored tropic plates - particularly for the recovery of the in-
through variation of the fiber orientation and stacking terlaminar stress state without integrating the
sequence, fiber-reinforced laminated composites are equilibrium equations. It is also difficult to determine
finding increasing applications. With the increased use properly the shear correction factor of laminates, upon
of fiber-reinforced composite-material plates and shells which the accuracy of the prediction of the first-order
in a variety of engineering structures, studies involving theory is strongly dependent.
the stresses, free vibration and buckling analysis of these Many theories have been developed to overcome the
composite structures are receiving greater attention to deficiency of the first-order theory - a constant or uni-
overcome the challenging technical problems in pre- form transverse shear strain distribution through the
dicting their structural response. One inherent feature of thickness (see for example, Refs. [7-l 11). Various higher-
composite laminates is that the transverse shear modules order theories that lead to a parabolic distribution of
is lower than the inplane moduli and as a result, the transverse strain through the thickness have also been
influence of transverse shear deformations becomes developed [12-141. No shear correction factors are used
significant as the plate thickness increases. Classical in these theories. More developed laminated plate the-
plate theory, which neglects the transverse shear defor- ories that give the other theories as special cases are
mation effects, predicts the response of thin isotropic presented 115,161.
plates with reasonable accuracy. The rapid development of industry motivated the
The first-order shear deformation theory proposed by development of more general and rigorous plate theories
Reissner [I] and Mindlin [2] was extended by Yang et al. to offer better representation of the kinematics of plates.
[3] to laminated plates, followed by many variants of the So, the transient behavior of composite plates has long
first-order theory. Reissner [4], Noor and Burton [5], been a main subject of many studies. But, these studies
are limited to the response of homogeneous composite
plates. Even, the few studies accounting for the struc-
l Corresponding author. tural response of non-homogeneous composite plates

0263-8223/99/$ - see front matter 0 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII:SO263-8223(98)00135-4
280 M. E. Fures. A. M. Zrnkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287

deal with special cases of non-homogeneity and anisot- The infinitesimal strains associated with the dis-
ropy, and the reported results in open literature are rare placements (1) are given by
[17-211.
t;, X $1 + zeU) + z’i!X 1 tQ=o.
The current paper is devoted to the free vibration and
buckling problems of non-homogeneous composite ioi (‘1= 1.2> 6: ,j = 4,5),
t:j = E, + z2&
plates. Various theories of homogeneous laminated
plates [14] are extended to the non-homogeneous ones. (2)
The laminates are in cross-ply and each lamina possesses where
a set of elastic constants varying with the in-plane
(0) au p =e co1
= (1 +
coordinates. A wide variety of numerical results are El =-,
8X 2 ;iv
* '4
X) a”? + /I+
a?>
presented for homogeneous and non-homogeneous
cross-ply laminates as per classical. first-order, and
higher-order theories. The influences of the non-homo-
geneity, aspect ratio, thickness effect, number of layers
and material anisotropy on the natural frequencies and
critical buckling are investigated.

2. Mathematical model

Consider a fiber-reinforced rectangular laminated

plate of length n, width b and total thickness h composed
of N orthotropic non-homogeneous layers oriented at
angles 01, f&, . dN.The material of each layer is as-
sumed to possess one plane of elastic symmetry parallel
to the .XYplane. The coordinate system is such that the
mid-plane of the plate coincides with .X_Y plane, and I”-
axis is normal to the middle plane. Let the upper surface (3)
of the plate (z=h/2) be subjected to a transverse distri-
The stress-strain relations for the kth non-homoge-
bution load q(x,y).There be distributed compressive in-
neous lamina in the material coordinate axes are given
plane forces Sr and SZ, and a distributed shear force SC
(per unit length) acting on the mid-plane of the plate.
The third-order shear deformation theory used in the 61 Cl2 Cl6 0 0 El

I= 0
present study is based on the following displacement (32 G2 66 0 0 E?
field [16]: 66 &6 c66 0 0 E6 - (4)
0 0 0 244 245 E4
241 =u+z
[
ag+Pi+yz2g++ , ( )I II)
0 0
where p,, are the variable material
0 p45 255(kl ES (k)
stiffnesses of the

[ay
aW
a”+cp j lamina and are assumed to be differentiable functions of
u2=0+ z cc-++ql+yz’
ay ( )I the in-plane coordinates x and y, then

u3= w: c,, = C,(X,Y). (5)

where (ul , u2, u3) are the displacements along X, y, and 2 The dynamic version of the principle of virtual dis-
directions, respectively, (u, t’, w) are the displacements of placements yields
a point on the mid-plane, and $ and cp are the slopes in h;'Z
the xz and yz planes due to bending only (slope rota-
tions).
The above displacement field (1) is the most general
o=
-hi2 R
p’%& I I + a/k)&,+ (T(~+%-~
2 * +
I
dfi cjz

consistent higher-order displacement field which gives

all other theories. The following lower-order theories _

can be obtained as: R

.
1. Higher-order plate theory (HPT): x = 0, /I = 1, y = 1.
2. First-order plate theory (FPT): z = 0, p = 1, y = 0. (6)
3. Classical plate theory (CPT): cy= - 1, /I= y = 0.
 ME. Fares, A.M. Zenkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287 281

3. Governing equatious Using expressions (4) in Eq. (12) the stress resultants
can be related to the strain components by
The governing equations can be derived from the
functional (6) by integrating the displacement gradients
in si by parts. The extremum conditions of the obtained , (i,j = 1 I,?2 6)
(14)
functional (6) gives the following dynamic equations:

(7)
(15)
(8) where jij, Bij, etc., are the non-homogeneous laminate
stiffnesses,

Aiij, Bij, Dij, Eij, Fij, Hij

>

1, z, 2, z3, z4, z6)dz, (i,j= 1,2,6),

zk-l

(2ij, Dij, Fij) = $1 Ef)(l, 2, Z4)dZ, (i>j=4>5),

Y-l

(9) (16)
and ~i;k)depend on the material properties and orienta-
tion of the kth non-homogeneous layer.
Note that the essential and natural boundary condi-
tions of the problem are:
(10)
Essential Natural

(11)
G M1n.r + M6ny
where L n
cp Mn, + Mzn,

7, = al, + YZ~+*, 1, = BZ~+ yzn+2,

Here n1 and n2 denote the direction cosines of the out-
ward unit vector normal to the boundary of the mid-
pW-’ da (n = 1,)>I,
2 3 4 5 7) * surface Sz.
zt-l

The stress resultants Ni and Mi etc., can be expanded as,

4. Solution procedure

1, z, z3)$)dz, (i= 1,2,6) The consistent higher-order theory presented in last

section is used to analyze the free vibration and buckling
problems of cross-ply non-homogeneous laminated
plates. The exact solution can be constructed when the
CQi, Ri) = g ] (1,g)$)h, (i=4,5),
plate is of rectangular plate geometry with the following
edge conditions and plate construction.
(12) Boundary conditions (simply supported).
where zk and zk_l are the top and bottom z-coordinates v=w=cp=Nr =I$?, =O, atx=O,a,
of the kth lamina, and u=w=14=N~=&~=O, aty=O,b. (17)

Qj = (1 + M)Qj+ 3yRj; Qj = fiQj + 3yRj, 0 = 4,5), Plate construction (cross-ply, i.e., & should be either
0” or 90’).
ATf~=&i+yfi; &Ti=pMi+yfi, (i= 1,2,6).
For the next, the elastic constants of the plate may be
(13) taken in the following form:
282 M. E. Fures. A.M. Zenkour I Composiw Structures 44 (1999) 279-287

The above equations give the eigenfrequencies and the

critical buckling loads.

C6h = C66eTi.W~ih)
C‘$4=C& 555 = cs5, (18)
5. Numerical results and discussion
where clj are the material stiffnesses of the corresponding
homogeneous lamina, i is a constant and may be called The free vibration and buckling problems are ana-
the coefficient of non-homogeneity. In the case ]<]<< 1. lyzed for symmetric cross-ply homogeneous and
the plate possesses a special kind of non-homogeneity, non-homogeneous rectangular composite plates with
the so-called weak non-homogeneity. The homogeneous simply-supported edges. For illustrative purposes, nu-
case can be obtained easily by setting i = 0. merical results of natural frequencies and critical buck-
In addition, the following plate stiffnesses are identi- ling loads are obtained as per the classical plate theory
cally zero (CPT), the first-order-plate theory (FPT) and the higher-
_ _
A,6 = AZ6 = Ad5= Blh = Blh = Dlh = Dz6 = Ddz = 0. order plate theory (HPT). A shear correction factors for
FPT are taken to be 5/6. The present numerical results
I?‘16= E26 = F,b = F2h = F45 = H,e = H26 = 0.
for the homogeneous plates ([ = 0) are compared with
(19) their counterparts in the literature [22-251.
For the free vibration case, we set y = S, = SZ = Sh = 0 The (plane stress-reduced) material stiffnesses of the
in the governing Eqs. (7))(11) and represent the dis- lamina L’,,are given by:
placements quantities (u, c, 11‘,$, cp) as: El V12E2
(“I = 1 - V,2V2, : c’2 = 1 _ \‘,2V2, ;

E?
c44 = G23: ~5s = G3: ~66 = GE,
{i]=${E gj $S]e”“‘. (20) (‘? = 1 _ V,2\‘2, :

where E, are Young’s moduli; v,, are Poisson’s ratios and

G,, are shear moduli. Poisson’s ratios and Young’s
where w = o,, dciotes the eigenfrequency associated moduli are related by the reciprocal relations
with (mth, nth) eigenmode, ,?= mda, p = nnlh and U,,,, r,,E, = v,,E, (i.j = 1,2).
I’,,,,, W,,,,, !P’,,, and Qim,are arbitrary parameters.
It is assumed (unless otherwise stated) that the
Using Eqs. (14) and (1.5) it is possible to get the
thickness and the material for all laminae are the same
functional (6) in terms of the displacements only. Sub-
(graphite-epoxy) having the orthotropic characteristics
stituting Eq. (20) into the results, we get for the free
vibration problem the following equation E,/E? = 40, E, = E?, G12/E2 = G13/E2 = 0.6,

@I - ~*[Pl)W = (01. (21) Gz31E2 = 0.5, v12 = v13 = 0.25. V23 = 0.49.
and for the buckling problem, we can get In general, the numerical results are displayed in
Tables l-5 as well as in Figs. 1-8. All results are ob-
w - PIH~I = (01, (22) tained using various plate theories for different values of
where the non-homogeneity coefficient <.
{A) = {VW v,,, KM, Kln.@??J. Tables 1 and 2 present the dimensionless fundamen-
is the solution vector. The elements of the coefficient tal frequencies of three, five, and nine-layer symmetric
matrices [L], [P] and [Sj are defined in Appendix A. cross-ply square plates for the inplane orthotropy ratio
For non-trivial solutions of Eqs. (21) and (22) the (El/E*) and for various values of the non-homogeneity
following determinants should be zero coefficient <. Tables 3 and 4 contain similar results for
critical buckling loads. Note that, the present numerical
][L] - W’[P]] = 0, ][L] - [S]i = 0. (23) results of the free vibration frequencies and critical

Table 1
Dimensionless fundamental frequency Co= tu(a’/h) a of (0”/90”/0”) square laminated plates (u//z = IO)

E,IE, HSDT i = 0.0 ;=o.s ;= 1.5

Ref. [24] CPT FPT HPT CPT FPT HPT CPT FPT HPT

2 6.757 6.913 6.738 6.736 8.336 8.034 8.031 13.278 12.159 12.154
10 9.801 10.550 9.195 9.776 12.305 11.179 11.153 17.792 15.011 14.964
20 12.072 13.819 12.079 12.041 15.941 13.777 13.425 22.172 16.982 16.907
30 13.600 16.451 13.619 13.567 18.890 15.269 14.915 25.818 18.213 18.127
40 14.725 18.717 14.756 14.693 21.438 16.343 15.994 29.010 19.076 18.987
 M.E. Fares, A.M. Zenkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287 283

Table 2
Effect of the orthotropy ratio on the fundamental frequency o* = ohm of cross-ply square plates (a/h = 5)
Source No. of Layers &I&
3 10 20 30 40
Exact Ref. [22] 0.26293 0.33087 0.38105 0.41087 0.43149
Noor Ref. [23] 0.26474 0.32841 0.38241 0.41089 0.43006
HSDT Ref. [24] 3 0.26292 0.32711 0.37009 0.39387 0.40962
Present: [ = 0.00 0.25756 0.32289 0.36700 0.39195 0.40886
HPT [ = 0.05 0.26110 0.32607 0.36974 0.39440 0.41113
[=0.50 0.29632 0.35658 0.39552 0.41737 0.43235
c= 1.00 0.34326 0.39483 0.42699 0.44526 0.45811
[= 1.50 0.39798 0.43784 0.46214 0.47650 0.48707

Exact Ref. [22] 0.26364 0.33988 0.39935 0.43502 0.45917

Noor Ref. [23] 0.26587 0.34089 0.39792 0.43140 0.45374
HSDT Ref. [24] 0.26331 0.33670 0.39271 0.42630 0.44926
Present: c = 0.00 0.25885 0.33381 0.39081 0.42503 0.44842
HPT 6 = 0.05 0.26241 0.33717 0.39380 0.42772 0.45087
[=0.50 0.29785 0.36899 0.42126 0.45194 0.47264
[= 1.00 0.34496 0.40783 0.45275 0.47880 0.49630
i= 1.50 0.39965 0.44981 0.48501 0.50556 0.51952

Exact Ref. [22] 0.26392 0.34211 0.40425 0.44193 0.46763

Noor Ref. (231 0.26640 0.34432 0.40547 0.44210 0.46679
HSDT Ref. [24] 0.26375 0.34079 0.40138 0.43788 0.46260
Present: [ = 0.00 0.25928 0.33773 0.39937 0.43687 0.46258
HPT < = 0.05 0.26286 0.34115 0.40248 0.43968 0.46513
[ = 0.50 0.29838 0.37358 0.43084 0.46481 0.48774
i= 1.00 0.34557 0.41290 0.46296 0.49227 0.51195
[= 1.50 0.42028 0.45499 0.49528 0.51907 0.53527

Table 3
Effect of the non-homogeneity coefficient on the biaxial critical buckling loads ($1 = Slb2/(E2h3)) of (O”/900/00) square plates (a/h = 10, S2 = St)
El I& HSDT Ref. [24] i = 0.0 [ = 0.5 <=1.5
CPT FPT HPT CPT FPT HPT CPT FPT HPT
2 2.364 2.473 2.344 2.343 3.598 3.333 3.331 9.169 7.636 7.630
10 4.963 5.746 4.936 4.916 7.818 6.424 6.394 16.357 11.552 11.479
20 a 5.516 9.591 7.588 7.449 13.038 9.610 9.474 27.118 15.706 15.404
30 a 9.056 12.147 8.575 8.820 16.339 11.131 10.920 32.821 17.286 16.800
40 a 10.259 14.704 10.202 9.975 19.642 12.460 12.128 38.527 18.658 17.985
a The lowest critical buckling occurs at mode numbers m = 1, n = 2, otherwise the critical buckling occurs in the first mode numbers m = 1, n = 1.

buckling loads for the homogeneous plates obtained
within the present HPT are in good agreement with the
corresponding results obtained by Noor [23,25] based on
the three-dimensional elasticity theory, Putcha and
Reddy [22], and Khdeir and Librescu [24] using a
higher-order theory. Moreover, both first- and higher-
order plate theories give almost the same values for all
cases with a slight deviation occurring for plates with
moderate non-homogeneous elastic properties (c > 1.5)
and made of high-strength composite materials with a
high orthotropy ratio. The classical plate theory over-
predicts both the fundamental frequencies and critical
buckling loads. The minimum errors between the
eigenfrequencies or critical buckling loads predicted by
CPT and HPT reach to 30% and these errors increase
with increasing the non-homogeneity coefficient. They
may exceed 50% for some non-homogeneous plates. The
classical theory predicts reasonable results only for
plates possessing weak non-homogeneous elastic prop-
erties with low orthotropy ratios. Figures 1 and 2 are
very eloquent in this respect.
The numerical results show that, the fundamental
frequencies and critical buckling loads increase with the
increase of the degree of orthotropy of individual layer
and the non-homogeneity coefficient. Moreover, the
number of layers has a weak effect on eigen-frequencies
and critical buckling loads. It is more pronounced in
plates with few-layers, especially, for large values of the
orthotropy ratio and the non-homogeneity coefficient.
Table 5 confirms some results of the previous analysis
for different mode numbers. The previous analysis in-
dicates that the classical plate theory is inadequate for
284 A4.E. Fures. A.M. Zenkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287

Table 4
The effect of the orthotropy ratio on the uniaxial buckling load (3, = Sib’/(E#))of cross-ply square plates (a/h = 10, & = 0)

Source No. of layers E,IEl

3 IO 20 30 40

Exact Ref. [22] 5.3933 9.9406 15.2980 19.6740 23.3400

Noor Ref. [25] 5.3044 9.7621 15.0191 19.3040 22.8807
HSDT Ref. [24] 3 5.392 9.846 14.917 18.912 22.154
Present: [ = 0.00 5.3899 9.8325 14.8896 18.8776 22.1207
HPT c = 0.05 5.5635 10.0866 15.2113 19.2358 22.4985
i=o.50 7.5208 12.7876 18.4884 22.7919 26.1848
& 1.00 10.9059 16.9540 23.1327 27.5860 30.9937
i= 1.50 16.4101 22.9578 29.2432 33.5761 36.8113

Exact Ref. [22] 5.4096 IO. 1500 16.0080 20.9990 25.3080

Noor Ref. [25] 5.3255 9.9603 15.6527 20.4663 24.5929
HSDT Ref. [24] 5 5.406 10.078 15.747 20.503 24.568
Present: [ = 0.00 5.4066 lo.0897 15.7879 20.5781 24.6755
HPT [ = 0.05 5.5810 10.3546 16.1432 20.9934 25.1313
[ = 0.50 7.5475 13.1738 19.7712 25.1280 29.5865
;= 1.00 10.9477 17.5186 24.90 I3 30.6723 35.3405
[= 1.50 16.4733 23.7410 31.5403 37.4108 42.0342

Exact Ref. [22] 5.4313 10.1970 16.1720 21.3150 25.7900

Noor Ref. [25] 5.3352 10.0417 15.9153 20.9614 25.3436
HSDT Ref. [24] 9 5.412 10.170 16.077 21.131 25.511
Present: [ = 0.00 5.4120 10.1772 16.1009 21.1783 25.5845
HPT [ = 0.05 5.5867 10.4459 16.4682 21.6145 26.0690
[=0.50 7.5560 13.3066 20.2237 25.963 I 30.8116
i= 1.00 10.961 1 17.7155 25.5365 31.7957 36.9338
[= 1.50 16.4936 24.0197 32.3895 38.8455 44.0075

Table 5
Dimensionless fundamental frequency W and biaxial buckling load .?, of a (0”/90”/0”) square laminated plates using HPT (a/h = 10)

n [=O.O [=0.5 <= 1.0 ;= I.5

w Sl 0 51 0 SI w SI
I 14.693 11.060 15.994 13.092 17.411 15.497 18.987 18.406
2 21.891 9.975 24.172 12.128 26.723 14.755 29.537 17.985
3 35.825 13.627 39.140 16.156 42.68 1 19.072 46.340 22.23 1
5 70.845 21.795 75.715 24.309 80.561 26.919 85.217 29.561 I
7 105.683 27.468 112.625 29.622 119.347 31.821 125.649 34.090
9 138.334 31.280 148.430 33.215 158.170 35.283 167.276 37.591

32
, :
28 - < = 0.0 ..A..

24 ._ ____< =I).5

20
.- -..-.<=l.O

5 .I*I’~‘~.~‘~“‘~“‘~ 01.8 16, @, 8 * 8. *. 8 2 0 * c .I

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 36 40

EIIEz El/E2

Fig. 1. Effect of the orthotropy ratio on the fundamental frequency GJ Fig. 2. Effect of the orthotropy ratio on the biaxial critical buckling
of a (0°/900/900/Oo) square plate (u/h = 10). ($2) of a (O”/900/900/Oo) square plate (a/h = 10, S, = S,).
 M. E. Fares, A.M. Zenkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287 285

25 100 ,
._- _.___ .._-.. --..--..__.._-___
I-
/
./‘- 90 6 = 0.0 :
.-
.r c______-----___-_-~~=.~__~_~ I

20 80 _--
70 - -..
60 _
0 15
S2 50 :

40 _
10 -_--6 =t-J5
30 _
--_-_ c = 1.0 r
20 *
5 i
0 4 8 12 16 20
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
alh
Fig. 3. Effect of the side-to-thickness ratio on the fundamental fre-
alb
quency 0 of a (O”/900/00)square plate. Fig. 6. Effect of the aspect ratio on the critical biaxial buckling load
(S;) of a (O”/900/O”)plate (u/h = 10, Sr = -Sr).

1.3 L

1.2 : -6 = 0.0 64
\
1.1 L___&05 56. \
- c; = 0.0
1
_--_(; zo.5
0.9 c_..-.C=l.O 48- t. \
0.8 40
-._-. 4 = 1.0
l 0.7
0
0.6 s2 32
0.5 24
0.4
0.3 16
0.2 8
0.1
2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
alb
s,/s2
Fig. 4. Effect of the aspect ratio on the fundamental frequency (w*) of
a (O”/900/Oo)plate (u/k = 10). Fig. 7. Effect of SIB2 ratio on the critical buckling load (3,) of a (O’/
90°/Oo) square plate (a/h = 10).

0.9
/
0.8 : -<
: --__<
=o.o
co.5 /
/ .*
0.7

0.6

@& 0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5
-I 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
alb
s1fs2
Fig. 5. Effect of the aspect ratio on the critical biaxial buckling load
(S; = S2/(hE2)) of a (O”/900/Oo)plate (a/h = 10, S, = S,). Fig. 8. Effect of S,/& ratio on the critical buckling load (32) of a (OV
9O’VO’)square plate (a/h = 5).

most vibration and buckling problems of non-homoge-

neous plates. for the aspect ratio. Note that, the non-homogeneity
Figures 3-6 display, respectively, the variation of the effect is more obvious in thin laminated plates with high
dimensionless fundamental frequencies and critical aspect ratio. This means that the plate stability is im-
biaxial buckling loads vs. the plate thickness ratio, and proved with increasing these ratios. Once again, we note
286 M. E. Fares, A.M. Zenkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287

that the first- and higher-order theories are required

L31 = +2rl,,B,, + P'(V,,&? + 2466B66)]:
even for the cases of thin orthotropic non-homogeneous
plates.
Figures 7 and 8 contain plots of critical buckling L32 = +2(~22&2 + &6B66) + P2r/22i22j ,

loads as a function of axial-to-transverse buckling ratio .7 - 21

(Si/$) for a (O”/900/Oo)square plate. These figures show L33 = "-A,, + p A,,

that the degree of non-homogeneity has a weak effect on

+ i.2 EL2rf,,D;,+ p2 q22ly2 + 2rj6&
the stability process with cases of large ratios of SiIS? [ (
and a/h. Furthermore, the best state of stability occurs
with plates compressed in one direction only. Y,,& + 2%6& + P2vl,,& 1>
1 J

Lid = A[& + 2’q,,D;,+ /+I,@;~ + 2166D;6)].

6. Conclusion L3s = P[&, + A2(v22& + h,,~;,) + P~Y~~D;,] :

Various theories of homogeneous laminated plates L4, = L,4. L4? = LIST L43

are extended to the non-homogeneous ones. The free = i[A;, + &,,D;, + ~2(y/22D;2
vibration and buckling problems of non-homogeneous ^* ^* 7 *x
2
rectangular plates are analyzed. The equations govern- L44 = A,, + J. v,,D,, + c1-'/66D66> L45
ing the dynamic response of non-homogeneous com-
= i/l 1122b);2+ y/66& 1
posite laminates are deduced based on a general ( )
consistent higher-order theory. The governing equations
Ls, = Lz4. L52 = Lzs. L5i
due to any lower-order theory can be easily obtained as
special cases. Numerical results for the natural fre- = ,u[A:, + 2(117,,DY2 + %D&,) + ~2~/22DT21>
quencies and critical buckling loads of symmetric cross-
ply laminates are obtained as per classical, first-order
and higher-order theories. The influences of the degree
of non-homogeneity, aspect ratio, thickness ratio and in-
plane orthotropy ratio on the natural frequencies and
where
critical buckling loads are illustrated. The results ob-
tained for homogeneous cases are compared with their
counterparts in the literature. The study concludes that
the classical plate theory is inadequate even for thin
non-homogeneous laminated plates. The first-order
theory, with proper shear correction factor, predicts h o

with reasonable accuracy the structure response of non- 4

Ff22= - eirihsin2(j.x) sin”(py)dx dv,
homogeneous laminates. In general, the degree of non- ab JJ
0 0
homogeneity has a significant effect on the free vibration
h i,
and stability processes. 4
J/66= - ei(.ria+y’h)cos2(l.x) cos2(py)dx dy,
ab. I-J
0 0
Appendix A
and
The elements L,, = L,, of the coefficient matrix [L]:
LII = A2r,,A,, + p2’/6cjAe Ln = Mv22A12 + ~66A66), AI: = Pi!, + 3YBi = (1 + r)A^,;+ 3ybj,!
;i:, = PAi, + 3yD;,, (i = 4.5).
Ll3 = +.'a,,&, + P2(122h2 + 2V66Bhh)j :
k = (1 + a)A,, + 3yD,;. A,, = /?A,,+ 3yDji,
01, = ( 1 + a)Dti + 3yfi,, b,, = fiDil + JYF;,,
L14 = ~"2?,,&, + P2V66j66> LIS = i.p(v22&2 + v66i66),

L21 = G(vl,,At2 + v66A66). L22 = jv21;/66A66

+ 1*2v22&2,

> (i,j= 1,2,6),

L23 = /+'(a,,&2 + h66R66) + P2rlz2B22] ?

L24 = b q,,&2 + 1]66i66 . L2S = ~.2u/66~66+ I*2r/22822.

( )
 M.E. Fares, A.M. Zenkour I Composite Structures 44 (1999) 279-287 281

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