Buckling and vibration analysis of composite laminated plates and shells using general spline function

A general spline finite strip capability is presented for predicting the buckling stresses and natural frequencies of composite laminated plates and shells which may have arbitrary lay-ups and any boundary conditions. This method is developed in the context of first-order shear deformation plate and shell theory as well as the classical plate and shell theory and the massive substructuring technique is incorporated into the solution procedure. A notable feature of the present capability is that the general spline integrations are carried out analytically by representing the basis general spline functions as a linear combination of cardinal spline functions. A considerable range of types of application is described and it is demonstrated that the general spline finite strip method is versatile and has more advantages over the usual equal spline finite strip method is on the buckling and vibration problems that have localized mode shapes.