ON VIBRATION AND BUCKLING OF SYMMETRICAL LAMINATED PLATES ACCORDING TO SHEAR DEFORMATION THEORIES .1.

The frequency and buckling equations of rectangular plates with various boundary conditions are developed within the third-order and the first-order shear deformation plate theories. The third-order theories account for a quadratic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the thickness of the plate. In the first part of this paper, Levinson's third-order theory, derived as a special case from Reddy's third-order theory, is used to study a plate laminated of transversely isotropic layers. The relationship between the original form of the governing equations and the interior and the edge-zone equations of the plate is closely examined and the physical insights from the latter equations are established. In the second part of the paper, the first-order shear deformation theory and the third-order theory of Reddy are studied for vibration and buckling.