Dynamic instability of imperfect laminated sandwich plates with in-plane partial edge load

Abstract

Dynamic instability of laminated sandwich plates having inter-laminar imperfections with in-plane partial edge loading is studied for the first time using an efficient finite element plate model. The plate model is based on a refined higher order shear deformation plate theory, where the transverse shear stresses are continuous at the layer interfaces with stress free conditions at plate top and bottom surfaces. A linear spring-layer model is used to model the inter-laminar imperfection by considering in-plane displacement jumps at the interfaces. Interestingly the plate model having all these refined features requires unknowns at the reference plane only. However, this theory requires C1 continuity of transverse displacement (w) i.e., w and its derivatives should be continuous at the common edges between two elements, which is difficult to satisfy arbitrarily in any existing finite element. To deal with this, a new triangular element developed by the authors is used in the present paper.