SPLINE FINITE STRIP ANALYSIS OF THE BUCKLING AND VIBRATION OF COMPOSITE PRISMATIC PLATE STRUCTURES

A spline finite strip capability is described for predicting the buckl ing stresses and natural frequencies of vibration of prismatic plate s tructures which may be of composite laminated construction with arbitr ary lay-ups. The plate structures may have general boundary conditions . The capability embraces analyses based on the use of first-order she ar deformation prate theory and of classical plate theory, and utilize s substructuring procedures which include the use of superstrips. The theoretical development is not detailed since the present paper report s a very direct extension of a theoretical study developed for the ana lysis of single plates in an earlier paper in this Journal [1]. A cons iderable range of buckling and vibration applications is documented an d comparison of spline finite strip numerical values of buckling stres ses and frequencies is made with results. generated using the semi-ana lytical finite strip method and, in some cases, the finite element met hod. Buckled and vibrational mode shapes are presented for some applic ations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.