Analysis of sandwich plates with a new layerwise formulation

In the analysis of sandwich laminates, where core and skin materials are so different, layerwise formulations should be adopted. In this paper the static and free vibration analysis of sandwich plates by the use of collocation with radial basis functions and using a new layerwise theory with independent rotations in each layer and thickness stretching was performed. With this formulation, transverse normal and shear deformations and stresses are accurately computed. The equations of motion were automatically implemented via a Unified Formulation and interpolated with radial basis functions. Finally composite laminated plate and sandwich plate examples were tested and discussed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.