1038 AIAA JOURNAL VOL, 11, NO.

Table 1 Effect of degree of orthotropy of the individual layers on

Free Vibrations of Multilayered the fundamental frequency of simply supported square multilayered
Composite Plates composite plates with h/L = 0.20. Values of A x 10; [A = co(ph2/ET)1/2y

AHMED K. NOOR* EL/ET

Lamination Nb-
George Washington University Center, NASA 10 20 30 40
Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
2 2.5031 2.7938 3.0698 3.2705 3.4250
Skew-symmetric 4 2.6182 3.2578 3.7622 4.0660 4.2719
6 2.6440 3.3657 3.9359 4.2783 4.5091
10 2.6583 3.4250 4.0337 4.4011 4.6498

R ECENT development of fibrous composites has stimulated

interest in the use of three-dimensional theory of elasticity for
obtaining highly accurate predictions of the response char-
Symmetric
3
5
2.6474 3.2841 3.8241 4.1089 4.3006
2.6587 3.4089 3.9792 4.3140 4.5374
9 2.6640 3.4432 4.0547 4.4210 4.6679
acteristics of composite plates. However, except for a recent study
by Pagano and Hatfield1 of the static bending behavior of simply
" p = Mass density of the material of the plate co = circular frequency.
supported, symmetrically laminated plates, almost all other * N = Number of layers.
publications have treated laminates consisting of only a few
layers, which are rarely used in practice [see, for example,
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Refs. 2-5]. The present Note summarizes some of the results

of a recent study of the reliability and range of validity of two-
dimensional plate theories when applied to the low-frequency
free vibration analysis of simply supported, bidirectional, multi-
layered plates consisting of a large number of layers. The standard
of comparison is taken to be the three-dimensional theory of
orthotropic elasticity. The two-dimensional plate theories con-
sidered are the classical KirchhofT-type theory with bending-
extensional coupling included, and the Mindlin-Reissner type
plate theory with both shear deformation and rotary inertia
accounted for. In the latter theory, the shear coefficients were
taken to be 7i2/12. A better estimate for the composite shear
coefficients can be obtained by matching the frequencies of
vibration of the lowest thickness shear modes at cutoff for both
the two-dimensional and three-dimensional solutions.6 Hence-
forth, the two-dimensional plate theories considered herein will
be referred to as the classical (CPT) and improved (IPT) plate
theories. Solutions of the three-dimensional elasticity theory were
obtained using the higher-order difference scheme presented in
1,80
Ref. 5. Such finite-difference scheme was shown to give highly
accurate results for the response characteristics of the plate.
Simply supported square orthotropic laminates having both
symmetric and skew-symmetric laminations with respect to the
middle plane were considered. The fiber orientations of the
different laminas alternate between 0° and 90° with respect to the
Xi axis, and in the symmetrical laminates the 0° layers were at
the outer surfaces of the laminate. The total thickness of the 0°
and 90° layers in each laminate were the same.
The material characteristics of the individual layers were taken
to be those typical of high fibrous composites, namely7:
GLr/Er = 0.6, G rr /E T = 0.5, VLT = VTT = 0.25
where subscript L refers to the direction of fibers and subscript
T refers to the transverse direction; V LT is the major Poisson's
ratio.
Two parameters were varied, namely the degree of orthotropy
of the individual layers, EjJET, and the thickness ratio of the
plate h/L, where h and L are the thickness and side length of the
plate. The ratio EjJET was varied between 3 and 40, and h/L
was varied between 0.05 and 0.50. Typical results are presented
in Table 1 and Figs. 1-3. The results presented herein pertain
to the fundamental frequencies and the associated mode shapes
and modal stresses.

3.00

Frequency
ratio 1.40

1.20
Frequency

1.00

Fig. 1 Effect of EJET on the accuracy of the fundamental frequency 1.00

obtained by classical plate theory for laminated orthotropic square
plates with h/L = 0.20. 0 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50

Received November 13, 1972. Fig. 2 Effect of h/L on the accuracy of the fundamental frequency
Index category: Structural Composite Materials (Including Coatings). obtained by classical plate theory for laminated orthotropic plates with
* Associate Research Professor of Engineering. Member AIAA. EL/ET = 30.
 JULY 1973 TECHNICAL NOTES 1039

In Table 1 the fundamental frequencies obtained by the three-

dimensional elasticity theory for orthotropic plates with different
lamination parameters are given. Figure 1 shows the influence
of the degree of orthotropy of the individual layers, EJE-p, on the
accuracy of the fundamental frequencies obtained by the CPT
for plates with both symmetric and skew-symmetric lamination.
It was found that for skew-symmetrically laminated plates as the
number of layers increased from 2 to 4, the accuracy of the CPT
sharply deteriorates. Further increase of the number of layers
does not have a significant effect on the accuracy. On the other
hand, for symmetrically laminated plates the accuracy of the CPT
predictions increases (at a decreasing rate) as the number of layers
increases. The error in the CPT predictions is mainly attributed
to the neglect of shear deformation. This is demonstrated by the
fact that the error in the predictions of IPT did not exceed 3%
(even for the case of highly orthotropic thick plate with
EL/ET = 30, h/L = 0.5). In all the problems solved, the effect of
rotary inertia was found to be insignificant. The results of the
-.5 IPT are not shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The aforementioned
remarks concerning the effect of lamination parameters on the
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accuracy of the fundamental frequencies hold for all the range of

h/L considered as shown in Fig. 2.
Figure 3 shows a plot of the mode shapes and modal stresses
associated with the fundamental frequency for a ten-layered plate
with EL/ET = 30 and h/L = 0.20. The modal normal and shear
stresses, a1 and <r31 were normalized by dividing them by o > lmm ,
and the modal tangential displacement in the Xj direction u was
normalized by dividing it by the normal displacement (in the
£ 3 direction) w at £ 3 = 0.5 (top surface of the plate).
The results show that the mode shapes and modal stresses
obtained by the IPT are not as accurate as the frequencies. The
error in the modal stresses increases with the increase in the
thickness ratio h/L.
In conclusion, the results of the present study show that for
composite plates the error in the predictions of the CPT is
strongly dependent on the number and stacking of the layers,
in addition to the degree of orthotropy of the individual layers
and the thickness ratio of the plate. For skew-symmetrically
laminated plates the error in the fundamental frequency sharply
increases as the number of layers increases from 2 to 4, then
becomes insensitive to further increases in the number of layers;
for symmetrically laminated plates the error decreases as the
number of layers increases. In general, the CPT theory is not
adequate for predicting the free vibration behavior of highly
orthotropic composite plates with /i/L^O.l. The IPT is
acceptable for predicting the low-frequency behavior of medium-
thick multilayer plates (with h/L ^ 0.2).

References
1
Pagano, N. J. and Hatfield, S. J., "Elastic Behavior of Multilayered
Bidirectional Composites," AIAA Journal, Vol. 10, No. 7, July 1972,
pp. 931-933.
2
Pagano, N. J., "Exact Solutions for Rectangular Bidirectional
Composites and Sandwich Plates," Journal of Composite Materials,
Vol. 4, Jan. 1970, pp. 20-34.
3
Srinivas, S. and Rao, A. K., "Bending, Vibration and Buckling of
Simply Supported Thick Orthotropic Rectangular Plates and
Laminates," International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 6,
No. 11, Nov. 1970, pp. 1463-1481.
4
Srinivas, S., Joga Rao, C. V., and Rao, A. K., "An Exact Analysis
of Vibration of Simply Supported Homogeneous and Laminated
Thick Rectangular Plates," Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 12,
1970, pp. 187-199.
5
Noor, A. K., "Mixed Finite-Difference Scheme for Analysis of
Simply Supported Thick Plates," International Journal of Computers
.02 .04 .06 .08 .10 and Structures, Oct. 1973.
6
Dong, S. B., "Studies Relating to the Structural Dynamic Behavior
of Laminated Plates and Shells," UCLA-ENG-7236, May 1972, Univ.
of California, Los Angeles, Calif.
7
Fig. 3 Mode shapes and modal stresses associated with fundamental Whitney, J. M., "The Effect of Transverse Shear Deformation on
frequency for a ten-layered orthotropic plate with EfJET = 30 and the Bending of Laminated Plates," Journal of Composite Materials,
h/L = 0.2. Vol. 3, July 1969, pp. 534-547.