Approximate Solutions for Unsymmetrically Laminated Plates

In a current article, Whitney [1] has presented exact solutions for certain problems of the bending of unsymmetrically laminated plates. This note considers an approximate method of solution for such plates which, although approximate, yields solutions that compare favorably with those presented by Whitney. Furthermore, since the approximate method reduces the problem to an equivalent anisotropic bending problem, the techniques that have been developed for the analysis of orthotropic and anisotropic plates can be directly utilized. It should be noted that the possibility of using the approximate analysis discussed herein was first suggested in [2] on the basis of experimental evidence. The present note presents an explanation of why this approximation does not introduce large errors, and presents numerical comparisons with Whitney’s exact solutions.