Abstract: This paper is concerned with the bending of laminated composite plates with arbitrary lay-up and general boundary conditions. The analysis is based on the small deflection, first-order shear defor- mation theory of composite plates, which utilizes the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory. In solving the afore- mentioned plate problems, a general algorithm based on the Ritz method and the use of beam orthogo- nal polynomials as coordinate functions is derived. This general algorithm provides an analytical approx- imate solution that can be applied to the static analysis of moderately thick laminated composite plates with any lamination scheme and combination of edge conditions. The convergence, accuracy, and flexi- bility of the obtained general algorithm are shown by computing several numerical examples and com- paring some of them with results given in the literature. Some results, including general laminates and nonsymmetrical boundary conditions with free edges, are also presented. Keywords: Plate bending, General laminated composite plates, First order shear deformation theory

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the bending of laminated composite plates with arbitrary lay-up and general boundary conditions. The analysis is based on the small deflection, first-order shear defor- mation theory of composite plates, which utilizes the Reissner-Mindlin plate theory. In so...