Free vibration analysis of symmetric cross-ply laminated composite beams with the help of the transfer matrix approach

The transfer matrix method is used for the numerical solution of both in-pl ane and out-of-plane free vibration problems of symmetric cross-ply laminat ed composite beams. The rotary inertia, and both shear and extensional defo rmation effects, are considered in the analysis. A distributed parameter mo del is used in the mathematical formulation of the free vibration problem. The overall transfer matrix of the beam is obtained making use of the serie s solution of a set of differential equations. All the effects of the bound ary conditions, the slenderness ratio, the ratio of the height to the width of the rectangular cross-section, the number of plies, and material types on the free vibration frequencies are studied. Comparison of the exact natu ral frequencies obtained in this study with the existing results is quite g ood. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.