Pseudo-transient large-deflection elastic analysis of fibre reinforced composite plates

Abstract

A unified approach is presented for the pseudo-transient (static) linear and geometrically non-linear analyses of composite laminates. A finite element idealization with a four-noded linear and a nine-noded quadrilateral isoparametric elements, both belonging to the Lagrangian family are used in space discretization. An explicit time marching scheme is employed for time integration of the resulting discrete ordinary differential equations with the special forms of diagonal fictitious mass and/or damping matrices. The accuracy of the formulation is then established by comparing the presnt pseudo-transient analysis results with the present static Newton-Raphson method results and other available analytical closed-form two dimensional and finite element solutions. The usefulness and effectiveness of this approach is established by comparing computational time required by this approach and Newton-Raphson's approach.