Transient Response of Laminated, Bimodular-Material, Composite Rectangular Plates

The paper presents a finite-element analysis of the transient behavior of fiber-reinforced, single-layer and two-layer cross-ply rectangular plates of bimodular materials (i.e., materials whose linear elastic properties are dif ferent depending on whether the fiber-direction strains are tensile or com pressive). To validate the finite element results, a closed-form solution is also presented for a rectangular plate with all edges simply-supported without in- plane restraint (along the edge) and tangential rotation and subjected to sud denly applied sinusoidally distributed normal pressure. The time behavior of the transverse loading is arbitrary (e.g., step loading, impulse loading, etc.). Numerical results for transverse deflection and locations of the 'neutral sur face' as functions of time are presented for two bimodular materials. The finite element solutions agree very closely with the closed-form solutions.