Stochastic nonlinear bending response of laminated composite plates with system randomness under lateral pressure and thermal loading

In this paper, the effect of sensitivity of randomness in system parameters on the nonlinear transverse central deflection response of laminated composite plates subjected to transverse uniform lateral pressure and thermal loading is examined. System parameters such as the lamina material properties, expansion of thermal coefficients, lamina plate thickness and lateral load are modelled as basic random variables. A higher order shear deformation theory in the von-Karman sense is used to model the system behavior of the laminated plate. A direct iterative-based C ⁰ nonlinear finite element method in conjunction with the first-order perturbation technique developed by the authors is extended for thermal problem to obtain the second-order response statistics, i.e., mean and variance of the nonlinear transverse deflection of the plate. Typical numerical results of composite plates with temperature independent and dependent material properties subjected to uniform temperature and combination of uniform and transverse temperature are obtained for various combinations of geometric parameters, uniform lateral pressures, staking sequences and boundary conditions. The results have been compared with those available in the literature and an independent Monte Carlo simulation.