Analysis of Symmetric Angle-Ply Laminated Composite Skew Plates Using Hybrid Trefftz Finite Element

Analysis of symmetric angle-ply skew laminated composite plates has been presented in the study using a newly developed hybrid Trefftz finite element (hTFE). Mindlin’s plate theory has been used to develop the present hTFE. The forms of displacement are assumed such that governing partial differential equations are satisfied a priori inside the element domain. Particular solutions of the governing equations have been ignored and Trefftz functions are derived using the homogenous solutions only. Inter-element continuity has been established by employing another displacement field along the edges of the hTFEs. The transverse shear stresses have been ignored at the top and bottom surfaces of the laminate. The angle of inclination of the width of the plate with the y-axis has been taken as the skew angle and different forms of skew plates are obtained by varying the skew angle. Sinusoidally distributed load (SDL), uniformly distributed load (UDL), and point load (PL) have been subjected to the top surface of the laminate and the non-dimensionalized center point deflection have been evaluated to assess the performance of the present hTFE. The observation from the present study further reinforce the versatility of the hTFE method for analysis of composite structures with complex shapes or geometries.