BENDING SOLUTION OF HIGH-ORDER REFINED SHEAR DEFORMATION-THEORY FOR RECTANGULAR COMPOSITE PLATES

A new high-order refined shear deformation theory based on Reissner's mixed variational principle in conjunction with the state- space conce pt is used to determine the deflections and stresses for rectangular c ross-ply composite plates. A zig-zag shaped function and Legendre poly nomials are introduced to approximate the in-plane displacement distri butions across the plate thickness. Numerical results are presented wi th different edge conditions, aspect ratios, lamination schemes and lo adings. A comparison with the exact solutions obtained by Pagano and t he results by Khdeir indicates that the present theory accurately esti mates the in-plane responses.