ENOC-2005, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 7-12 August 2005

NONLINEAR TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED

COMPOSITE PLATES
Hakan Tanr over
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Istanbul Technical University, 34437 Istanbul
Turkey
hakant@itu.edu.tr
Erol S enocak
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Istanbul Technical University, 34437 Istanbul
Turkey
senocak@itu.edu.tr
Abstract
The geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated
composite plates under dynamic loading is considered.
Galerkin method with the use of Newmarks scheme
in association with Newton-Raphson method is ap-
plied to obtain the dynamic nonlinear response of the
plates. First order shear deformation theory based on
Mindlins hypothesis and von K arm an type geometric
nonlinearity are utilized. The governing differential
equations are solved by choosing suitable polynomi-
als as trial functions to approximate the plate displace-
ments. The solutions are compared to that of Cheby-
shev series, nite strips and nite elements. A very
close agreement has been observed with these approx-
imating methods. In the solution process, analytical
computation has been done wherever it is possible, and
analytical-numerical type approach has been made for
all problems.
Key words
Galerkin method, laminates, shear deformation, large
deection, transient analysis.
1 Introduction
Various numerical techniques can be utilized to inves-
tigate the geometrically nonlinear dynamic response
of laminated composite plates. Reddy applied the -
nite element method (FEM) [Reddy, 1983], Chen et al.
developed a semi-analytical nite strip method (FSM)
[Chen, Dawe and Wang, 2000] and Nath and Shukla
[Nath and Shukla, 2001] used Chebyshev series (CS)
technique for the nonlinear transient analysis of lami-
nates. Note that the rst order shear deformation the-
ory (FSDT) based on Mindlins hypothesis and von
K arm an type geometric nonlinearity were employed in
all of these works.
In the present paper geometrically nonlinear tran-
sient analysis of laminated composite plates is per-
formed using the Galerkin method (GM). FSDT based
q
o
( /2, /2) a b
(0,0)
a
b
x
y
Figure 1. Plate geometry and loading.
on Mindlins hypothesis with von K arm an nonlinearity
is utilized and the dynamic nonlinear analysis is per-
formed through using the Newmark method in associa-
tion with the Newton-Raphson method. In the solution
process, computations have been carried out analyti-
cally wherever it is possible and analytical-numerical
type approach has been made for all cases. Suitable
polynomials are chosen as trial functions to approxi-
mate the plate displacements.
2 Governing Equations
Consider a rectangular laminated plate with dimen-
sions a, b and uniform thickness h. The origin of the
coordinate system is chosen to coincide with the cen-
ter of the midplane of the undeformed plate (see Fig. 1).
The plate is assumed to be subjected uniformtransverse
pressure q
o
, and it is constructed of nite homogenous
orthotropic layers perfectly bonded together.
Under the assumptions of rst order shear deforma-
tion theory based on Mindlins hypothesis; let u, v, w
denote the displacements at an arbitrary point of the
plate in the x, y, z directions and u
0
(x, y), v
0
(x, y),
w
0
(x, y) are the displacements at a corresponding point
of the midplane of the plate in the x, y and z directions
respectively. Then the displacement eld of the rst
order theory is of the form [Mindlin, 1951]:
u(x, y, z, t) = u
0
(x, y, t) +
x
(x, y, t)z,
v(x, y, z, t) = v
0
(x, y, t) +
y
(x, y, t)z,
w(x, y, z, t) = w
0
(x, y, t),
(1)
where
x
and
y
are the rotations of a transverse nor-
mal about the y and x axes respectively. The corres-
ponding total strains could be expressed as follows:

x
=
0
x
+
x
z,

y
=
0
y
+
y
z,

xy
=
0
xy
+
xy
z,

xz
=
0
xz
,
yz
=
0
yz
.
(2)
Considering von K arm an type geometric nonlinearity
[Brush and Almroth, 1975], the strain displacement re-
lations can be written as

0
x
= u
0
,x
+
1
2
w
2
,x
,

0
y
= v
0
,y
+
1
2
w
2
,y
,

0
xy
= u
0
,y
+v
0
,x
+w
,x
w
,y
,

0
xz
= w
,x
+
x
,

0
yz
= w
,y
+
y
,
(3)
where differentiations are denoted by comma. Mid-
plane curvatures and twist of the plate are the follow-
ing:

x
=
x,x
,
y
=
y,y
,
xy
=
x,y
+
y,x
. (4)
For a plate with an arbitrary number of layers, the cons-
titutive relations are
_
N
M
_
=
_
A B
B D
_ _

_
, (5)
_
Q
y
Q
x
_
= K
_
A
44
A
45
A
45
A
55
_ _

0
yz

0
xz
_
, (6)
where N and Mare the resultant forces and moments
conjugate to
0
and respectively. Q
x
and Q
y
are
transverse forces and the parameter K is shear correc-
tion factor [Whitney, 1987]. A
ij
, B
ij
and D
ij
are sym-
metric matrices dened as follows:
(A
ij
, B
ij
, D
ij
) =
_
h/2
h/2
(1, z, z
2
) Q
ij
dz, (7)
where Q
ij
is the corresponding reduced stiffness coef-
cients.
Five governing equations of motion for the plate can
be written as follows in the general form [Reddy,
1997]:
R
1
= N
x,x
+N
xy,y
I
0
u
0
,tt
I
1

x,tt
= 0,
R
2
= N
xy,x
+N
y,y
I
0
v
0
,tt
I
1

y,tt
= 0,
R
3
= Q
x,x
+Q
y,y
+ (w
,x
N
x
+w
,y
N
xy
)
,x
+(w
,x
N
xy
+w
,y
N
y
)
,y
+q
o
I
0
w
,tt
= 0,
R
4
= M
x,x
+M
xy,y
Q
x
I
2

x,tt
I
1
u
0
,tt
= 0,
R
5
= M
xy,x
+M
y,y
Q
y
I
2

y,tt
I
1
v
0
,tt
= 0,
(8)
where I
0
, I
1
and I
2
are mass moments of inertia de-
ned as
(I
0
, I
1
, I
2
) =
_
h/2
h/2
(1, z, z
2
) dz
=

i
_
z
i+1
z
i
(1, z, z
2
)
(i)
dz,
(9)

(i)
being the material density of the ith layer. The
equations of motion (8) in terms of displacements can
be obtained by making use of constitutive (5, 6), strain-
displacement (3) and curvature-displacement (4) rela-
tions (these equations are not given here; see [Reddy,
1997] for details).
For the Galerkin approach, the normalized displace-
ments of the plate are approximated in the form shown
below:
u
0
=
M

m=0
N

n=0
a
mn
( t )U
mn
(x, y),
v
0
=
M

m=0
N

n=0
b
mn
( t )V
mn
(x, y),
w =
M

m=0
N

n=0
c
mn
( t )W
mn
(x, y),

x
=
M

m=0
N

n=0
d
mn
( t )S
mn
(x, y),

y
=
M

m=0
N

n=0
e
mn
( t )T
mn
(x, y),
(10)
where a
mn
, b
mn
, c
mn
, d
mn
and e
mn
are unknown
functions of time, U
mn
, V
mn
, W
mn
, S
mn
and T
mn
are
the trial functions, and M and N are the number of
terms in x and y directions respectively. In general, M
and N may take different values for each displacement
function. Herein, polynomials are used as trial func-
tions, which are chosen to satisfy the geometric boun-
dary conditions, where as natural boundary conditions
are not satised. In this case, simultaneous approxima-
tion is made to the solutions of differential equations
and to the boundary conditions.
Substituting Eq. (10) into nonlinear plate equilibrium
equations and the boundary terms yields the residuals
in the domain of the plate and at the boundaries of the
plate. Forcing these residuals to be orthogonal to each
member of a set of trial functions yields the following
Galerkin equations (see [Tanr over and S enocak, 2004]
for details).
_
+b/2
b/2
_
+a/2
a/2
U
mn
R
1
dxdy

_
+b/2
b/2
U
mn
N
x
|
x=a/2
dy

_
+a/2
a/2
U
mn
N
xy
|
y=b/2
dx = 0,
_
+b/2
b/2
_
+a/2
a/2
V
mn
R
2
dxdy

_
+a/2
a/2
V
mn
N
y
|
y=b/2
dx

_
+b/2
b/2
V
mn
N
xy
|
x=a/2
dy = 0,
_
+b/2
b/2
_
+a/2
a/2
W
mn
R
3
dxdy = 0,
_
+b/2
b/2
_
+a/2
a/2
S
mn
R
4
dxdy

_
+1
1
S
mn
M
x
|
x=a/2
dy = 0,
_
+b/2
b/2
_
+a/2
a/2
T
mn
R
5
dxdy

_
+1
1
T
mn
M
y
|
y=b/2
dx = 0.
(11)
3 Solution Procedure
In the application of the Galerkin method the geomet-
rical boundary conditions are satised by choosing ap-
propriate trial functions. Trial functions are weighted
polynomials given as follows:
U
mn
=
1
x
m
y
n
,
V
mn
=
2
x
m
y
n
,
W
mn
=
3
x
m
y
n
,
S
mn
=
4
x
m
y
n
,
T
mn
=
5
x
m
y
n
,
(12)
where
i
(i = 1, . . . 5) denote the weight functions.
Substituting Eq. (10) into Eqs. (11), nonlinear equa-
tions in terms of unknown coefcients a
mn
, b
mn
, c
mn
,
d
mn
and e
mn
are obtained. These equations are solved
by employing the Newton-Raphson methodology.
4 Boundary Conditions
Two different boundary conditions are considered and
shown in Table 1. Note that whole plate models are
analyzed in all cases presented here.
5 Time Integration
To integrate Eqs. (11), Newmarks direct integration
scheme [Newmark, 1959] is employed. In the New-
mark scheme the rst time derivative of the displace-
ment eld

U and the solution U are approximated at
(n + 1) time step (i.e., at time t = t
n+1
(n + 1)t)
by the following expressions:

U
n+1
=

U
n
+ t[(1 )

U
n
+

U
n+1
],
U
n+1
= U
n
+

U
n
t
+
t
2
2
[(1 2)

U
n
+ 2

U
n+1
],
(13)
where and parameters are chosen as 1/2 and 1/4
respectively in all of the present analyses.
Initial displacement and velocity elds are taken as
zero in the analyses. Initial acceleration is obtained
by substituting initial displacement eld into Eqs. (11)
and solving the yielding linear equation system. In
each time step, equations of motion (8) is utilized with
Newmarks scheme by substituting acceleration at t
n+1
from Eqs. (8) into the second equation of Newmark
scheme. GM is applied to the resulting nonlinear dif-
ferential equations in terms of displacements at t
n+1
.
The method gives nonlinear equations in terms of un-
known coefcients a
mn
, b
mn
, c
mn
, d
mn
and e
mn
.
These equations are solved by employing the Newton-
Raphson methodology. Note that the evaluations of in-
tegrals are symbolically computed by using a commer-
cial computer math code Mathematica
TM
[Wolfram,
1988].
6 Numerical Examples
Geometrically nonlinear transient analyses of a cross-
ply and an angle-ply laminate are accomplished as a
verication of the present technique. Comparisons
with the other numerical techniques such as Chebyshev
series and nite strip method are provided. A commer-
cial FEM program ABAQUS is also used.
6.1 Nonlinear Transient Analysis of an Unsym-
metric Cross-Ply Laminate
Nonlinear transient analysis of an unsymmetric cross-
ply [0

/90

/0

/90

] laminate is considered. The

cross-ply laminate is under SS1 boundary condition.
Material properties, geometry, loading data and related
normalized variables of the plate are taken from [Nath
and Shukla, 2001] and given below.
E1/E
2
= 25, G
12
= G
13
= E
2
/2, G
23
= E
2
/5,

12
= 0.25, a = b, = a/h = 10,
q

= 125.
Table 1. Boundary conditions and corresponding weight functions.
u
0
= v
0
= w = M
x
=
y
= 0 at x = a/2,
u
0
= v
0
= w = M
y
=
x
= 0 at y = b/2.
SS1

i
= (x
2
a
2
/4)(y
2
b
2
/4) (i = 1, . . . 3),

4
= (y
2
b
2
/4),
5
= (x
2
a
2
/4).
N
x
= v
0
= w = M
x
=
y
= 0 at x = a/2,
N
y
= u
0
= w = M
y
=
x
= 0 at y = b/2.
SS2
3
= (x
2
a
2
/4)(y
2
b
2
/4),

i
= (y
2
b
2
/4) (i = 1, 4),

i
= (x
2
a
2
/4) (i = 2, 5).
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
time
0.25
0
0.25
0.5
0.75
1
1.25
c
e
n
t
e
r
d
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
A
CS
GM 5
GM 3
Figure 2. Center deection ( w

) of the cross-ply laminate in time

(). GM 3: M = N = 3 in GM, GM 5: M = N = 5 in GM,
CS: Chebyshev series results. A: ABAQUS results.
q

=
q
o
a
4
E
2
h
4
, w

=
w
h
, = t

4A
22
I
0
h
2

2
.
Here, the time step is taken as 0.1. Results of GM,
CS techniques [Nath and Shukla, 2001] and commer-
cial FEM program ABAQUS are given in Fig. 2. In the
ABAQUS analysis 1010 mesh with S4 type elements
is used.
6.2 Nonlinear Transient Analysis of an Unsym-
metric Angle-Ply Laminate
Nonlinear transient analysis of an angle-ply laminate
[45

/ 45

/45

/ 45

] is performed. The angle-ply

laminate is under SS2 type boundary condition. The
material, geometric and loading data are taken from
[Chen, Dawe and Wang, 2000] and given below.
E1 = 525000N/mm
2
, E
2
= 21000N/mm
2
,
G
12
= G
13
= G
23
= 10500N/mm
2
,

12
= 0.25, a = b = 250 mm, h = 5 mm,
= 800kg/m
3
, q
o
= 1N/mm
2
.
Here, the time step t is taken as 1sec. Results of
GM (M = N = 5) and FSM are given in Fig. 3.
7 Conclusions
Geometrically nonlinear transient analysis of thick
composite plates based on FSDT is performed by using
Galerkin approach with the use of Newmarks scheme
in association with Newton-Raphson method. The
choice of trial functions is crucial to approximate the
two dimensional displacement eld. The trial func-
tions must be chosen in a way that essential boundary
conditions are satised. The present solution method-
ology may be used to solve dynamic large deection
0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2
time
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
c
e
n
t
e
r
d
e
f
l
e
c
t
i
o
n
FSM
GM
Figure 3. Center deection ( w/h) of the angle-ply laminate in time
(millisec). FSM: Results from [Chen, Dawe and Wang, 2000].
analysis of the thick laminates in an easy and effec-
tive way with the help of a symbolic math package.
The method is found to determine closely the displace-
ments with a few number of terms. The results are
compared to that of known other approximating meth-
ods (Chebyshev series and nite strips), and commer-
cial FEM code ABAQUS. A very good agreement is
observed.
References
Brush, D.O. and Almroth, B.O. (1975). Buckling of
Bars, Plates and Shells. McGraw-Hill.
Chen, J., Dawe, D.J. and Wang, S. [2000] Nonlinear
transient analysis of rectangular composite laminated
plates. Composite Structures, 49, pp. 12939.
Mindlin, R.D. [1951] Inuence of rotatory inertia and
shear on exural motions of isotropic, elastic plates.
Journal of Applied Mechanics, 18 March, pp. 318.
Nath, Y. and Shukla, K.K. [2001] Non-linear tran-
sient analysis of moderately thick laminated compos-
ite plates. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 247 3, pp.
509526.
Newmark, N.M. [1959] A method of computation for
structural dynamics. ASCE Journal of the Engineer-
ing Mechanics Division, 8, pp. 6794.
Reddy, J.N. [1983] Geometrically nonlinear transient
analysis of laminated composite plates. AIAA J., 21
4, pp. 6219.
Reddy, J.N. (1997). Mechanics of Laminated Compos-
ite Plates. CRC Press. New York.
Tanr over, H. and S enocak, E. [2004] Large deec-
tion analysis of unsymmetrically laminated compos-
ite plates: analytical-numerical type approach. Int. J.
Non-Linear Mechanics, 39 8, pp. 1385-92.
Whitney, J.M. (1987). Structural Analysis of Lamina-
ted Anisotropic Plates. Technomic Publ. Co.
Wolfram, S. (1988). Mathematica
TM
: A System for
Doing Mathematics by Computer. Addison-Wesley.
Redwood City, CA.