Nonlinear bending response of laminated composite plates on nonlinear elastic foundation with uncertain system properties

This paper presents an investigation of the stochastic nonlinear bending response of a laminated composite plate resting on a two parameter Pasternak elastic foundation with Winkler cubic nonlinearity with uncertain system properties subjected to transverse distributed static load. The system properties such as material properties and foundation stiffness parameters are modelled as independent basic random variables. A C 0 nonlinear finite element formulation of the random nonlinear problem based on higher order shear deformation theory in the von Karman sense is presented. A direct iterative method in conjunction with a stochastic nonlinear finite element method is proposed to analyze the effect of uncertainty in the material properties and foundation stiffness parameters on the nonlinear static response of the composite plates. Numerical results for mean as well as standard deviation of nonlinear transverse central deflection of the laminated composite plates resting on linear and nonlinear elastic foundations have been obtained for various combinations of geometric parameters, foundation parameters, stacking sequences and boundary conditions. The results have been compared with those available in the literature and from an independent Monte Carlo simulation.