An improved in-plane displacement model for the stability analysis of laminated composites with general lamination configurations

Abstract This paper describes how the derivatives of lateral displacement are eliminated in the general displacement field of the global–local higher-order theory for stability analysis of laminated composite and sandwich plates with general lamination configurations. In contrast to previous models, the present model is applicable not only to the cross-ply but also to the angle-ply laminated composite and sandwich plates. Based on known traction forces on the surface boundaries, the derivatives of transverse displacement have been taken out from the general displacement field, so that C 0 interpolation functions are only required for the finite element implementation. To verify the proposed theory, the classical quadratic six-node C 0 triangular element is employed for the interpolation of all the displacement parameters defined at each nodal point on the composite plate. Numerical results show that following the proposed theory simple C 0 finite elements could accurately predict the critical loads of sandwich plate with soft core, which has long been a difficult case for the other global higher-order theories.