TOTAL LAGRANGIAN FORMULATION FOR LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES ANALYZED BY 3-DIMENSIONAL FINITE-ELEMENTS WITH 2-DIMENSIONAL KINEMATIC CONSTRAINTS

A three-dimensional element with two-dimensional kinematic constraints is developed for the geometric nonlinear analysis of laminated compos ite plates. The Newton-Raphson iterative method is adopted to trace th e nonlinear equilibrium path. Maximum accuracy in the computation of s tresses is achieved by postprocessing the stress results from constitu tive equations with the aid of the equilibrium equations. Some numeric al examples are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and the validi ty of the proposed element. A total Lagrangian description and the pri nciple of virtual displacements is used to formulate the equilibrium e quations.