Inclusion of transverse shear deformation in exact buckling and vibration analysis of composite plate assemblies

The problem considered is the development of the necessary plate stiffnesses for use in a general purpose program for buckling and vibration of composite plate assemblies. The required stiffnesses are for the assumption of sinusoidal response along the plate length with transverse shear included. The method is based on the exact solution of the plate differential equations for a composite laminate having fully populated A, B, and D matrices which leads to a differential equation of tenth order.