Nonlinear bending of shear deformable laminated plates under transverse and in-plane loads and resting on elastic foundations

A nonlinear bending analysis is presented for a simply supported, shear deformable composite laminated plate subjected to combined uniform lateral pressure and compressive edge loads and resting on a two-parameter (Pasternak-type) elastic foundation. The formulations are based on Reddyʹs higher order shear deformation plate theory (HSDPT), including the plate¯foundation interaction. The analysis uses a perturbation technique to determine the load¯deflection curves and load¯bending moment curves. Numerical examples are presented that relate to the performances of antisymmetric angle-ply and symmetric cross-ply laminated plates subjected to combined loading and resting on two-parameter elastic foundations from which results for Winkler elastic foundations are obtained as a limiting case. The effects played by foundation stiffness, plate aspect ratio, total number of plies, fiber orientation, transverse shear deformation and initial compressive load are studied.