NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF LAMINATED PLATES WITH A HIGHER-ORDER THEORY AND CO FINITE-ELEMENTS

Abstract

Impact responses of composite laminates are investigated with C0 finite elements. A ninenode isoparametric quadrilateral element based on a higher-order theory and the von Karman large deflection assumptions is developed. An experimentally established contact law which accounts for the permanent indentation is incorporated into the finite element program to evaluate the impact force. In the time integration, the explicit central difference technique is used in conjunction with the special mass matrix diagonalization scheme. Numerical results, including the contact force histories, deflections and strains in the plate, are presented.