Development of a higher order finite element on a Winkler foundation

Analyzing thick plates as a construction component has been of interest to structural engineering research for several decades. In particular, thick plates resting on elastic foundations are more specific. Mindlin's plate theory for thick plate analysis and the Winkler theory for elastic foundation analyses have wide applications. The current research considers analysis of isotropic plates on a Winkler foundation according to Mindlin's plate theory. The analysis uses a higher order plate element to avoid shear locking phenomena in the plate. The main features of this element are representation of real displacement functions of the plate perfect and shear locking do not occur at the plates modeled with this element. Derivation of the equations for finite element formulation for thick plate theory uses fourth-order displacement shape functions. A computer program using the finite element method, coded in C++, analyzes the plates resting on an elastic foundation. The analysis involves a 17-noded finite element. The study's graphs and tables assist engineers' designs of thick plates resting on elastic foundations. The study concludes with the computer-coded program, which allows effective use for the shear locking-free analysis of thick Mindlin plates resting on elastic foundations.     

Buckling and free vibration analysis of thick rectangular plates resting on elastic foundation using mixed finite element and differential quadrature method

In this article, a combination of the finite element (FE) and differential quadrature (DQ) methods is used to solve the eigenvalue (buckling and free vibration) equations of rectangular thick plates resting on elastic foundations. The elastic foundation is described by the Pasternak (two-parameter) model. The three dimensional, linear and small strain theory of elasticity and energy principle are employed to derive the governing equations. The in-plane domain is discretized using two dimensional finite elements. The spatial derivatives of equations in the thickness direction are discretized in strong-form using DQM. Buckling and free vibration of rectangular thick plates of various thicknesses to width and aspect ratios with Pasternak elastic foundation are investigated using the proposed FE-DQ method. The results obtained by the mixed method have been verified by the few analytical solutions in the literature. It is concluded that the mixed FE-DQ method has good convergancy behavior; and acceptable accuracy can be obtained by the method with a reasonable degrees of freedom.     

Nonlinear flexural response of laminated composite plates under hygro-thermo-mechanical loading

The paper deals with Chebyshev series based analytical solution for the nonlinear flexural response of the elastically supported moderately thick laminated composite rectangular plates subjected to hygro-thermo-mechanical loading. The mathematical formulation is based on higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and von-Karman nonlinear kinematics. The elastic foundation is modeled as shear deformable with cubic nonlinearity. The elastic and hygrothermal properties of the fiber reinforced composite material are considered to be dependent on temperature and moisture concentration and have been evaluated utilizing micromechanics model. The quadratic extrapolation technique is used for linearization and fast converging finite double Chebyshev series is used for spatial discretization of the governing nonlinear equations of equilibrium. The effects of Winkler and Pasternak foundation parameters, temperature and moisture concentration on nonlinear flexural response of the laminated composite rectangular plate with different lamination scheme and boundary conditions are presented.     

Free Vibration Analysis of Laminated Composite Plates Resting on Elastic Foundations by Using a Refined Hyperbolic Shear Deformation Theory

The free vibration of laminated composite plates on elastic foundations is examined by using a refined hyperbolic shear deformation theory. This theory is based on the assumption that the transverse displacements consist of bending and shear components where the bending components do not contribute to shear forces, and likewise, the shear components do not contribute to bending moments. The most interesting feature of this theory is that it allows for parabolic distributions of transverse shear stresses across the plate thickness and satisfies the conditions of zero shear stresses at the top and bottom surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factors. The number of independent unknowns in the present theory is four, as against five in other shear deformation theories. In the analysis, the foundation is modeled as a two-parameter Pasternak-type foundation, or as a Winkler-type one if the second foundation parameter is zero. The equation of motion for simply supported thick laminated rectangular plates resting on an elastic foundation is obtained through the use of Hamilton’s principle. The numerical results found in the present analysis for free the vibration of cross-ply laminated plates on elastic foundations are presented and compared with those available in the literature. The theory proposed is not only accurate, but also efficient in predicting the natural frequencies of laminated composite plates.     

Dynamic response of circular and annular circular plates using spectral element method

This paper presents development of the spectral element method (SEM) for analysis of circular and annular circular plates vibration under impact load. A novel formulation is proposed in frequency domain for conducting spectral element matrix. Several numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate performance of the presented method compared to other numerical methods in literature. The presented formulation was applied in order to analyze vibration of annular circular plates with various thicknesses and various internal-to-external radius ratios. In addition, annular circular plate displacements subjected to an impact load were calculated using the presented SEM.     

Free vibration analysis of piezoelectric coupled annular plates with variable thickness

This paper presents the free vibration analysis of piezoelectric coupled annular plates with variable thickness on the basis of the Mindlin plate theory. No work has yet been done on piezoelectric laminated plates while the thickness is variable. Two piezoelectric layers are embedded on the upper and lower surfaces of the host plate. The host plate thickness is linearly increased in the radial direction while the piezoelectric layers thicknesses remain constant along the radial direction. Different combinations of three types of boundary conditions i.e. clamped, simply supported, and free end conditions are considered at the inner and outer edges of plate. The Maxwell static electricity equation in piezoelectric layers is satisfied using a quadratic distribution of electric potential along the thickness. The natural frequencies are obtained utilizing a Rayleigh–Ritz energy approach and are validated by comparing with those obtained by finite element analysis. A good compliance is observed between numerical solution and finite element analysis. Convergence study is performed in order to verify the numerical stability of the present method. The effects of different geometrical parameters such as the thickness of piezoelectric layers and the angle of host plate on the natural frequencies of the assembly are investigated.     

Thermoelastic stability analysis of laminated composite plates: An analytical approach

The paper presents Chebyshev series based analytical solutions for the postbuckling response of the moderately thick laminated composite rectangular plates with and without elastic foundations. The plate is assumed to be subjected to in-plane mechanical, thermal and thermomechanical loadings. In-plane mechanical loading consists of uniaxial, biaxial, shear loadings and their combinations. The temperature induced loading is due to either uniform temperature or a linearly varying temperature across the thickness. The mathematical formulation is based on higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) and von-Karman nonlinear kinematics. The elastic foundation is modeled as shear deformable with cubic nonlinearity. The thermal and mechanical properties of the composites are assumed to be temperature dependent. The quadratic extrapolation technique is used for linearization and fast converging finite double Chebyshev series is used for spatial discretization of the governing nonlinear equations of equilibrium. The effects of plate parameters and foundation parameters on buckling and postbuckling response of the plate are presented.     

Analysis of Thick Laminated Composite Plates on an Elastic Foundation with the Use of Various Plate Theories

In this study, various theories of composite laminated plates are extended to rectangular composite laminates resting on an elastic foundation. First, an analysis based on the classical theory of laminated plates is employed. Then the first-order Reissner-Mindlin theory is used for analyzing the laminates. At last, the Reddy shear deformation theory, which allows for the transverse shear strains, is applied to the bending analysis of the laminates. In the analysis, the two-parameter Pasternak and Winkler foundations are considered. The accuracy of the present analysis is demonstrated by solving problems numerical results for which are available in the literature. Some numerical examples are presented to compare the three methods and to illustrate the effects of parameters of the elastic foundations on the bending of shear-deformable laminated plates. __________ Russian translation published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 5, pp. 663–682, September–October, 2005.     

On the effects of coupling between in-plane and out-of-plane vibrating modes of smart functionally graded circular/annular plates

In recent years many articles concerned with the mechanics of functionally graded plates have been published. The variation in material properties through the thickness of the plate introduces a coupling between in-plane and transverse displacements, the coupling is important in the vibration of functionally graded plates (FGPs), but none have produced an exact closed-form solution for the in-plane as well as transverse vibrations of smart circular/annular FGPs. Therefore, this paper develops an exact closed-form solution for the free vibration of piezoelectric coupled thick circular/annular FGPs subjected to different boundary conditions on the basis of the Mindlin’s first-order shear deformation theory. Through the comparison of present results with those available, the accuracy of the present method was verified. The effects of coupling between in-plane and transverse displacements on the frequency parameters are proved to be significant. It is concluded that the developed model can describe vibrational behavior of smart FGM plates more realistic. Due to the inherent features of the present solution, all findings will be a useful benchmark for evaluating other analytical and numerical methods developed by researchers in the future.     

Bending of thick functionally graded plates resting on Winkler–Pasternak elastic foundations

The static response of simply supported functionally graded plates (FGP) subjected to a transverse uniform load (UL) or a sinusoidally distributed load (SL) and resting on an elastic foundation is examined by using a new hyperbolic displacement model. The present theory exactly satisfies the stress boundary conditions on the top and bottom surfaces of the plate. No transverse shear correction factors are needed, because a correct representation of the transverse shear strain is given. The material properties of the plate are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power-law distribution in terms of volume fractions of material constituents. The foundation is modeled as a two-parameter Pasternak-type foundation, or as a Winkler-type one if the second parameter is zero. The equilibrium equations of a functionally graded plate are given based on the hyperbolic shear deformation theory of plates presented. The effects of stiffness and gradient index of the foundation on the mechanical responses of the plates are discussed. It is established that the elastic foundations significantly affect the mechanical behavior of thick functionally graded plates. The numerical results presented in the paper can serve as benchmarks for future analyses of thick functionally graded plates on elastic foundations.     

Delamination growth of laminated circular plates under in-plane loads and movable boundary conditions

An investigation is made on interlaminar delamination growth of composite laminated circular plates under in-plane loads and movable delamination boundary conditions. A four-dissociated-region model is developed on the basis of von-Karman plate theory. The model is geometrically nonlinear and the laminated circular plate considered is subjected to axisymmetrical delamination. The effects of transverse shear deformation and contact effect of the delamination on the laminated plates are taking into account in the development of the governing equations of the laminated circular pates with random axisymmetrical delamination. The formulas for describing the total energy release rate and its individual mode components along the delamination front are also derived with considerations of Griffith criterion for fracture. Based on the model established, the delamination growth is numerically studied; and the influences of the parameters such as delamination radii and depths, together with material properties of the plates on the energy release rate are analyzed in detail.     

Post buckling response of laminated composite plate on elastic foundation with random system properties

This paper deals with second order statistics of post buckling load of shear deformable laminated composite plates resting on linear elastic foundation with random system properties. The formulation is based on higher order shear deformation plate theory in general von Karman sense, which includes foundation effect using two-parameter Pasternak model. The random system equations are derived using the principal of virtual work. A finite element method is used for spatial descretization of the laminate with a reasonable accuracy. A perturbation technique has been the first time successfully combined with direct iterative technique by neglecting the changes in nonlinear stiffness matrix due to random variation of transverse displacements during iteration. The numerical results for the second order statistics of post buckling loads are obtained. A detailed study is carried out to highlight the characteristics of the random response and its sensitivity to different foundation parameters, the plate thickness ratio, the plate aspect ratio, the support condition, the stacking sequence and the lamination angle on the post buckling response of the laminate. The results have been compared with existing results and an independent Monte Carlo simulation.     

非均匀弹性地基圆板轴对称弯曲的一般解

本文在阶梯折算法的基础上,提出一个新的方法——精确解析法,得到了非均匀弹性地基圆板弯曲的一般解.文中导出了在任意轴对称载荷和边界条件下求解非均匀弹性地基圆板和中心带孔圆板弯曲的一般公式,并给出一致收敛于精确解的证明.文中得到的一般解可直接计算无弹性地基圆板的弯曲问题.问题最后归结为求解一个二元一次代数方程.文末给出算例,算例表明无论内力和位移均可得到满意的结果.     

Dynamic analysis of multi-directional functionally graded annular plates

Dynamic analysis of multi-directional functionally graded annular plates is achieved in this paper using a semi-analytical numerical method entitled the state space-based differential quadrature method. Based on the three-dimensional elastic theory and assuming the material properties having an exponent-law variation along the thickness, radial direction or both directions, the frequency equations of free vibration of multi-directional functionally graded annular plates are derived under various boundary conditions. Numerical examples are presented to validate the approach and the superiority of this method is also demonstrated. Then free vibration of functionally graded annular plates is studied for different variations of material properties along the thickness, radial direction and both directions, respectively. And the influences of the material property graded variations on the dynamic behavior are also investigated. The multi-directional graded material can likely be designed according to the actual requirement and it is a potential alternative to the unidirectional functionally graded material.     

Free vibration of polar orthotropic circular plates of quadratically varying thickness resting on elastic foundation

Classical plate theory is used to study free vibration of polar orthotropic circular plates of quadratically varying thickness resting on Winkler elastic foundation. Boundary characteristic orthonormal polynomials are used in the Rayleigh–Ritz method to analyze the plate for free, simply supported and clamped edge conditions. The numerical convergence of the method is tested and comparisons are made in particular case with the results already available in the literature. First twelve frequencies for various values of parameters describing the elastic foundation, thickness profile and orthotropy of the plate are given in tabular form. Two dimensional graphs for nodal lines and three dimensional graphs for mode shapes are plotted.     

A two-dimensional layerwise-differential quadrature static analysis of thick laminated composite circular arches

In this paper, a high accuracy and rapid convergence hybrid approach is developed for two-dimensional static analyses of circular arches with different boundary conditions. The method essentially consists of a layerwise technique in the thickness direction in conjunction with differential quadrature method (DQM) in the axial direction. Hence, the high accuracy and fast convergence of DQM with generality of layerwise formulations for modeling the transverse deformations of arbitrary laminated composite thick arches are combined. This results in superior accuracy with fewer degrees of freedom than conventional finite element method (FEM) or finite difference method (FDM). The convergence behavior of the method is shown and to verify its accuracy, the results are compared with those obtained based on the first order shear deformation Reissner–Naghdi type shell theory and also higher order shear deformation theory. The effects of opening angles, ply angle, boundary conditions, and thickness-to-length ratio on the stress and displacement components are studied.     

Free vibration of a functionally graded annular sector plate integrated with piezoelectric layers

Based on the first order shear deformation theory, free vibration behavior of functionally graded (FG) annular sector plates integrated with piezoelectric layers is investigated. The distribution of electric potential along the thickness direction of piezoelectric layers which is assumed to be a combination of linear and sinusoidal functions, satisfies both open and closed circuit electrical boundary conditions. Through a reformulation of governing equations and harmonic motion assumption, a novel decoupling method is suggested to transform the six second order coupled partial differential equations of motion into two eighth order and fourth order equations. A Fourier series method is then employed to present analytical solutions for free vibration of smart FG annular sector plates with simply supported radial edges and arbitrarily supported circular edges. The results, which can be used as a benchmark and suitable for design purposes, are verified with those reported in the literature. Finally, by presenting extensive ranges of frequencies, the effects of geometric parameters, power law index, FG and piezoelectric materials, electrical and mechanical boundary conditions as well as the piezoelectric layer thickness on vibration response of smart annular sector plates are discussed in detail.     

A power series solution for vibration and complex modal stress analyses of variable thickness viscoelastic two-directional FGM circular plates on elastic foundations

In the present paper, a power series solution is developed for free vibration and damping analyses of viscoelastic functionally graded plates with variable thickness on elastic foundations. It is assumed that the material properties of the functionally graded material (FGM) vary in the transverse and radial directions, simultaneously. Therefore, the presented solution can be employed for the transversely-graded and radially-graded viscoelastic circular plates, as special cases. In addition to the edge conditions, the plate may be resting on a two-parameter elastic foundation. The complex modulus approach in combination with the elastic–viscoelastic correspondence principle is employed to obtain the solution for various edge conditions. A sensitivity analysis including effects of various edge conditions, geometric parameters, coefficients of the elastic foundation, parameters of the functionally graded material, and material loss factor is carried out. In the present paper, concept of the complex modal stresses of the viscoelastic plates is discussed in detail.     

Numerical analysis of free vibrations of laminated composite conical and cylindrical shells: Discrete singular convolution (DSC) approach

A numerical study on the free vibration analysis for laminated conical and cylindrical shell is presented. The analysis is carried out using Love's first approximation thin shell theory and solved using discrete singular convolution (DSC) method. Numerical results in free vibrations of laminated conical and cylindrical shells are presented graphically for different geometric and material parameters. Free vibrations of isotropic cylindrical shells and annular plates are treated as special cases. The effects of circumferential wave number, number of layers on frequencies characteristics are also discussed. The numerical results show that the present method is quite easy to implement, accurate and efficient for the problems considered.     

修正迭代法在波纹圆板非线性振动问题中的应用

在本文中,我们将修正迭代法成功地推广运用于全波纹圆板的非线性振动问题的研究,获得了全波纹圆板的非线性振频和振幅的解析关系式.本文还讨论了波纹圆板的几何参量对其振动特性的影响,本文结果对精密仪器弹性元件的设计具有一定的实际意义.