Dynamic analysis of laminated plates using a higher-order theory

This paper deals with the dynamic analog of the higher-order shear deformation plate theory developed by the senior author. The theory is based on a displacement field in which the inplane displacements are expanded as cubic functions of the thicknes coordinate and the transverse deflection is assumed to be constant through the thickness. The additional dependent unkowns introduced with the quadratic and cubic terms of the thickness coordinate are eliminated by requiring the transverse shear stresses to vanish on the bounding planes of the plate. The theory accounts for the parabolic distribution of the transverse shear stresses, and hence no shear correction coefficients are required.