Analysis of multilayered anisotropic plates - A new look at an old problem
The paper is concerned with the effects of variation in the lamination and geometric parameters of multilayered anisotropic plates on the accuracy of the static and vibrational responses predicted by six modeling approaches based on two-dimensional shear deformation theories. Extensive numerical results are presented for antisymmetrically laminated anisotropic rectangular plates. It is shown that, for most practical problems, the transverse shear deformation has a much more pronounced effect on the response of multilayered composite plates than that of transverse normal strain and stress. It is also shown that the accuracy of the predictions of the first-order deformation theory is strongly dependent on the values of the composite shear correction factors used.