Static deformations and vibration analysis of composite and sandwich plates using a layerwise theory and RBF-PS discretizations with optimal shape parameter

A study of static deformations and free vibration of shear flexible isotropic and laminated composite plates is presented. A layerwise theory for laminated or sandwich plates is used. The analysis is based on a new numerical scheme, where collocation by radial basis functions is viewed as a pseudospectral method to produce highly accurate results. A cross-validation technique is used to optimize the shape parameter for the basis functions. Numerical results for symmetric laminated composite and sandwich plates are presented and discussed.