Shear Deformation Analysis of Laminated Composite Plates

This paper presents a shear deformable finite element method for the plate bending analysis of laminated composite plates. The finite element for laminated composite plates is based on the first-order shear deformation theory and is obtained with a modified stiffness matrix in the condition in which the out-of-plane shear strain is constant in two directions within an element. The element employed is a triangle with 15 degree-of-freedom which include extension, bending and transverse shear deformation states. Several numerical examples show that good results can be obtained, which demonstrate the validity of the method.