Enhanced modeling of laminated and sandwich plates via strain energy transformation

An enhanced first-order shear deformation theory has been developed for the deformation and stress recovery of laminated and sandwich plates. Based on the definition of Reissner–Mindlin’s plate theory, the relationships between three-dimensional and first-order shear deformation theories have been derived. It is assumed that the displacements, in-plane strains and stresses of Reissner–Mindlin’s plate theory can approximate those of three-dimensional theory, in the least-square sense. Their relationships have been systematically established and verified through the strain energy transformation. These relationships provide the closed-form recovering relations for three-dimensional variables expressed in terms of the variables of Reissner–Mindlin’s plate theory. An efficient higher-order plate theory is utilized to obtain the in-plane warping functions. Comparisons of deflection, stresses and shear correction factors of both laminated and sandwich plates using the present theory are made with the original first-order shear deformation theory and three-dimensional exact solutions.