Large deflection of composite laminated plates under transverse and in-plane loads and resting on elastic foundations

This paper presents a Vlasov type modified first order shear deformation theory to analyze the dynamic response of open-profile sections made of laminated composite materials. A variational mathematical approach is adopted to derive all the necessary field equations in two dimensions for sections subjected to non-uniform torsion. The basic field equations include all the necessary shear deformation terms in a consistent manner, such as that based on the Reissner and Mindlin type of theory, and. unlike other existing theories, do not violate any essential kinematic conditions and/or the basic assumptions. The initial and boundary conditions are obtained directly from the variational principle. Some special geometric and material properties are proposed for potential simplification of the basic field equations. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.