Isogeometric analysis of laminated composite plates based on a four-variable refined plate theory

In this paper, a simple and effective formulation based on isogeometric approach (IGA) and a four variable refined plate theory (RPT) is proposed to investigate the behavior of laminated composite plates. RPT model satisfies the traction-free boundary conditions at plate surfaces and describes the non-linear distribution of shear stresses without requiring shear correction factor (SCF). IGA utilizes basis functions, namely B-splines or non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS), which reveals easily the smoothness of any arbitrary order. It hence handles easily the C1 requirement of the RPT model. Approximating the displacement field with four degrees of freedom per each node, the present method retains the computational efficiency while ensuring the reasonable accuracy in solution.