A new laminate model is presented for the dynamic analysis of a laminated c
ircular ring segment. The differential equations which govern the free vibr
ations of a circular ring se-ment and the associated boundary conditions ar
e derived by Hamilton's principle considering bending and shear deformation
of all layers. The author used a new iterative process to successively ref
ine the stress/strain field in the viscoelastic layer. The model includes t
he effects of transverse shear and rotatory inertia. The iterative model is
used to predict the modal frequencies and damping of a simply supported sa
ndwich circular arch. The solutions for a three-layer circular arch are com
pared to a three-layer approximate model. (C) 2001 Academic Press.