Static deformations and vibration analysis of composite and sandwich plates using a layerwise theory and RBF-PS discretizations with optimal shape parameter

A study of static deformations and free vibration of shear flexible isotropic and laminated composite plates is presented. A layerwise theory for laminated or sandwich plates is used. The analysis is based on a new numerical scheme, where collocation by radial basis functions is viewed as a pseudospectral method to produce highly accurate results. A cross-validation technique is used to optimize the shape parameter for the basis functions. Numerical results for symmetric laminated composite and sandwich plates are presented and discussed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.