Nonlinear transient analysis of moderately thick laminated composite sector plates

This study presents a simple formulation for the nonlinear dynamic analysis of shear-deformable laminated sector plates made up of cylindrically orthotropic layers. The non-axisymmetric formulation in cylindrical coordinates is discretized in space domain using two-dimensional Chebyshev polynomials. Houbolt time marching is used for temporal discretization. Quadratic extrapolation is used for linearization along with fixed-point iteration for obtaining the results. Several combinations of simply supported, clamped and free edge conditions are considered. Convergence study has been carried out and the results are compared with the results of square plates. Effects of boundary conditions, moduli ratio, lamination scheme, sector angle and annularity on the transient deflection response are plotted graphically. Transient responses are compared for step, saw-tooth and sinusoidal loadings. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.