PREDICTION OF NATURAL-MODES OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES BY A FINITE-ELEMENT TECHNIQUE

In this paper an investigation is reported into the natural frequencie s and modes of laminated composite plates. The finite element approach in this paper shows a good agreement with the available closed form s olutions. Three distinguished features of laminated plates are illustr ated and discussed; namely. the directional preference of nodal lines, the shift of order of the first in-plane vibration modes, and the var iation of mode shapes due to the stacking angle. The in-plane vibratio ns are obtained. They have not been reported in the literature before.