Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Stiffened and Unstiffened Laminated Composite Plates Using a High-order Element

Stiffened plates are used in several applications, such as aircrafts, ships, and aerospace structures. Dynamic analysis of stiffened and unstiffened composite laminated plate is presented in this work using a high-order finite element. The shear effect has been taken into consideration in the derivation of the element. This technique gives us the ability to avoid the problem of unsymmetry of stiffness matrix due to large deformation effect. The accuracy of the proposed derivation of the element has been verified through the comparison of the results with published, software (ANSYS-11) and experimental results. The effects of the number of layers and degree of orthtropy are studied with different case studies by different boundary conditions and thickness-to-span ratio. A comparison with different kind of elements is presented.