The displacement view of a multilayered HSDT plate

This paper presents the state of displacement of a multilayered composite laminate subjected to transverse static load with varying balance, symmetric and anti-symmetric angle-ply and cross-ply staking sequences. Higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT) is considered in the finite element formulation of nine-noded isoparametric element with seven degrees of freedom at each node. The finite element formulation is transformed into computer codes. A convergence study is carried out first to obtain the optimal mesh size for minimizing the computational time. The maximum deflection at the center of plate for both fixed and simply supported edges is verified with reported literature and a good conformity is found. An attempt has been made to observe the minimum value of maximum deflection in the laminate for attaining the maximum strength of laminate with a suitable combination of stacking sequences with a constant volume of material.