Analysis of composite plates by trigonometric shear deformation theory and multiquadrics

In this paper we used for the first time a trigonometric shear deformation theory for modelling symmetric composite plates discretized by a meshless method based on global multiquadric radial basis functions. This trigonometric theory uses trigonometric functions through the thickness direction, allowing for zero transverse shear stresses at the top and bottom surfaces of the plate. The results obtained are compared with solutions derived from other models and numerical techniques. The results show that the use of trigonometric shear deformation theory discretized with multiquadrics provides very good solutions for composite and sandwich plates.