Solving the vibration of thick symmetric laminates by Reissner/Mindlin plate theory and the p-Ritz method

A global p-Ritz method is employed for vibration analysis of thick rectangular laminates with various combinations of boundary conditions. In the method a set of boundary beam characteristic orthogonal polynomials is used as admissible functions in the Ritz minimization procedures. To incorporate the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia, first-order Reissner/Mindlin plate theory is employed. Several example problems are presented for symmetric laminates of different boundary conditions. Numerical results are carefully established through convergence studies. Comparisons are made with the known published values to verify the accuracy of the p-Ritz method. Finally results in terms of non-dimensional frequency parameters for various boundary conditions, aspect ratios and relative thickness ratios are presented. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited