Free Vibration Analysis of Composite Right Angle Triangular Plate Using a Shear Flexible Element

A high precision triangular plate bending element proposed by the second author of this paper has been upgraded for the free vibration analysis of laminated composite right angle triangular plates. The effect of shear deformation has been incorporated. An efficient mass lumping scheme with rotary inertia has been recommended. Numerical examples of composite triangular plates having different thickness ratios, side ratios, fibre-orientations, number of layers and boundary conditions have been solved by this element. For validation of the present formulation and element few results on isotropic and orthotropic plates have been compared with those obtained from literatures. The results on composite plates have been presented as new results.