Dynamic analysis of laminated composite plates subjected to a moving oscillator by FEM

This paper presents a finite element model based on the first order shear deformation theory to investigate the dynamic behavior of laminated composite plates traversed by a moving oscillator. The oscillator model is assumed to be consisting of two nodal masses that are connected by means of a spring-damper unit. The governing equations of motion of two sub-systems are separately integrated by applying the Newmark’s time integration procedure. Then, the obtained equations are coupled and the responses of system components are calculated in each time step. The accuracy of algorithm is verified by comparing the numerical results of static, free vibration and simplified moving force problems analysis with the available exact solutions and other numerical results in the literature. Also, the effects of mass ratio, damping ratio of system components, stiffness of suspension system, velocity and eccentricity of moving oscillator on dynamic responses is parametrically studied. This algorithm can be applied to various boundary conditions, lamination schemes and fiber angels.