FREE-VIBRATION AND BUCKLING OF SYMMETRICAL CROSS-PLY RECTANGULAR LAMINATES

The method of superposition is further developed to analyze free vibra tion and buckling of symmetric cross-ply laminated rectangular plates. The improved plate theory developed by Mindlin is implemented. A four building block technique is employed that reduces the number of combi nations of classical boundary conditions that need to be studied. Comb inations of clamped and simply supported boundary conditions are inves tigated, Eigen-values and critical buckling loads with four-digit accu racy are obtained for plates with five distinct combinations of simply supported and clamped boundary conditions.