DYNAMIC NONLINEAR BEHAVIOR OF

COMPOSITE PLATES
H. Tanrover1 and E. Senocak2
ABSTRACT
Dynamic large deflection analysis of composite plates is considered. Galerkin method
with the use of Newmarks scheme in association with Newton-Raphson method is applied to obtain the dynamic nonlinear response of the plates. The von Karman plate
theory is utilized and the governing differential equations are solved by choosing suitable polynomials as trial functions to approximate the plate displacement functions.
The solutions are compared to that of finite strips. A very close agreement has been
observed with this approximating method. In the solution process, analytical computation has been done wherever it is possible, and analytical-numerical type approach
has been made for all problems.

Keywords: Galerkin method, large deflection, transient response.

INTRODUCTION
The dynamic behavior of structural components is a topic of considerable
engineering importance. There is a great number of research work on the elastic
behavior of laminated plates (particularly thin plates). Among the published
works, von Karman plate theory has gathered the most attention for the nonlinear
responses of plates going under large deflection. A number of studies have been
carried out concerning the nonlinear analysis of plates, and a comprehensive list
of papers published in the area is given in reference (Reddy 1997).
For the solution of coupled, nonlinear partial differential equations, many procedures (such as finite elements, Fourier series, Rayleigh-Ritz and Galerkin) have
been used. Bauer solved the nonlinear transient problem of the isotropic plates
using a proper stress function and applying the Ritz-Galerkin method to the deflection equation (Bauer 1968). In this work, the resulting ordinary nonlinear
differential equation in time was handled using a perturbation technique. Reddy
1

Graduate research assistant. e-mail: hakant@itu.edu.tr

Professor.
Istanbul Technical University, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
G
um
ussuyu, 80191 Istanbul, Turkey. e-mail: senocak@itu.edu.tr. Tel: +90 212 293 1300x2722
Fax: +90 212 245 07 95
2

investigated nonlinear dynamic behavior of composite plates utilizing finite elements with Newmark time integration scheme (Reddy 1983). In a recent work,
a semi-analytical finite strip method (FSM) has been developed for analyzing
nonlinear transient problem of laminates (Chen et al. 2000).
The Galerkin technique has found a research area for a particular case of
boundary conditions and trial functions for large deflection analysis (Savithiri
and Varadan 1993; Ray et al. 1992; Woo and Sudhakar 1992; Liu et al. 1997).
Recent studies has been done on static geometrically nonlinear behavior of the
laminates by the authors (Senocak and Tanrover 2001; Tanrover and Senocak
2003). In these previous works the Galerkin method (GM) along with Newton
Raphson method is applied to large deflection analysis of laminated composite
plates.
In the present paper geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated composite
plates under dynamic loading is considered. The von Karman plate theory is utilized and the governing differential equations are solved by using the GM. Suitable
polynomials are chosen as trial functions to approximate the plate displacement
functions. Dynamic nonlinear analysis is performed through using the Newmark
method in association with the Newton-Raphson method. The solutions are compared to that of finite strips (Chen et al. 2000). In the solution process, analytical
computation has been done wherever it is possible, and analytical-numerical type
approach has been made for all problems.
GOVERNING EQUATIONS
Consider a thin rectangular laminated plate with dimensions a, b and uniform
thickness h. The origin of the coordinate system is chosen to coincide with the
center of the midplane of the undeformed plate. The plate is assumed to be subjected uniform transverse pressure qo , and it is constructed of finite homogenous
orthotropic layers perfectly bonded together.
In the formulation of the present problem, classical assumptions (known as
Kirchhoff hypothesis of classical thin plates) and intermediate level of deformations (in the von Karman sense) are employed. Shear deformation effects are not
taken into account. Under these assumptions; let u, v, w denote the displacements at an arbitrary point of the plate in the x, y, z directions and u0 (x, y),
v 0 (x, y) are the displacements at a corresponding point of the midplane of the
plate in the x, y directions respectively. Considering von Karman type geometric
nonlinearity, the strain displacement relations can be written as
1 2 0
1 2 0
0
0
0x = u0,x + w,x
, y = v,y
+ w,y
, xy = u0,y + v,x
+ w,x w,y ,
2
2

(1)

where differentiations are denoted by comma. Under the assumptions of Kirchhoff

hypothesis (small slopes), midplane curvatures of the plate are the following:
x = w,xx , y = w,yy , xy = 2w,xy .

(2)

For a thin plate with an arbitrary number of layers, the constitutive relations are
 0 
 


A B
N
,
(3)
=

B D
M
where N and M are the resultant forces and moments conjugate to 0 and
respectively. Three governing equations of motion for the plate can be written as
(see also (Reddy 1997))
E1 = Nx,x + Nxy,y = 0,

E2 = Nxy,x + Ny,y = 0,

E3 = Mx,xx + 2Mxy,xy + My,yy

+w,xx Nx + 2w,xy Nxy + w,yy Ny + qo P w,tt = 0,

(4)

where P is the normal inertia coefficient;

P =

h/2

dz =
h/2

XZ
i

zi+1

(i) dz,

(5)

zi

(i) being the material density of the ith layer. Note that in-plane inertia effects
are neglected.
For the Galerkin approach, the displacements of the plate are approximated
in the form shown below:
P
PN
PM PN
0
u0 = M
(6)
m=0
n=0 amn (t)Umn (x, y), v =
m=0
n=0 bmn (t)Vmn (x, y),
PM PN
w = m=0 n=0 cmn (t)Wmn (x, y).

Herein, polynomials are used as trial functions, which are chosen to satisfy the
geometric boundary conditions, where as natural boundary conditions are not
satisfied. In this case, simultaneous approximation is made to the solutions of
differential equations and to the boundary conditions.
Substituting Eq. (6) into nonlinear equations of motion (4) and the boundary
terms yields the residuals in the domain of the plate and at the boundaries of the
plate. Forcing these residuals to be orthogonal to each member of a set of trial
functions yields the following Galerkin equations (Tanrover and Senocak 2003).
R +b/2 R +a/2

= 0,

R +b/2 R +a/2

= 0,

Umn E1 (u0 , v 0 , w)dxdy

b/2 a/2
R +a/2
R +b/2
b/2 Umn Nx |x=a/2 dy a/2 Umn Nxy |y=b/2 dx
V E (u0 , v 0 , w)dxdy
b/2 a/2 mn 2
R +a/2
R +b/2
a/2 Vmn Ny |y=b/2 dx b/2 Vmn Nxy |x=a/2 dy

R +b/2 R +a/2

Wmn E3 (u0 , v 0 , w)dxdy

b/2 a/2
R +b/2
R +a/2
+ b/2 Wmn,x Mx |x=a/2 dy + a/2
3

Wmn,y My |y=b/2 dx = 0.

(7)

SOLUTION PROCEDURE
In the present work, a solution methodology is presented for the nonlinear
transient analyses of composite plates under uniform transverse pressure, using
Galerkins method. In the application of the GM the geometrical boundary conditions are satisfied by choosing appropriate trial functions. The trial functions
are weighted polynomials given as follows:
Umn = u xm y n , Vmn = v xm y n , Wmn = w xm y n ,

(8)

where u , v and w denote the weight functions. For the present analyses m
and n values are chosen as



m = odd
m = even
m = even
Umn ,
Vmn ,
Wmn .
n = even
n = odd
n = even
In the double sum representation of the trial functions (6) for this paper M and
N are taken as five.
The following boundary conditions and related weight functions are employed
for all of the analyses in this paper.
Nx = v 0 = w = Mx = 0 at x = a/2,
u0 = Ny = w = My = 0 at y = b/2,

(9)

u = (y 2 b2 /4), v = (x2 a2 /4), w = (x2 a2 /4)(y 2 b2 /4).

Time Integration
To integrate Eqs. (7), Newmarks direct integration scheme (Newmark 1959)
is employed. In the Newmark scheme the first time derivative of the displacement
and the solution U are approximated at (n + 1) time step (i.e., at time
field U
t = tn+1 (n + 1)t) by the following expressions:
n+1 = U
n + t[(1 )U
n + U
n+1 ],
U
2
n + 2 U
n+1 ],
n t + t [(1 2)U
Un+1 = Un + U
2

(10)

where and parameters are chosen as 1/2 and 1/4 respectively in the present
analyses.
Initial displacement and velocity fields are taken as zero in the analyses. Initial
acceleration is obtained by substituting initial displacement field into Eqs. (7)
and solving the yielding linear equation system. In each time step, equations
of motion (4) is utilized with Newmarks scheme by substituting acceleration
at tn+1 from Eqs. (4) into the second equation of Newmark scheme. GM is
applied to the resulting nonlinear differential equations in terms of displacements
at tn+1 . The method gives nonlinear equations in terms of unknown coefficients
amn , bmn and cmn . These equations are solved by employing the Newton-Raphson
methodology. Note that the evaluations of integrals are symbolically computed
by using a commercial computer math code M athematicaT M (Wolfram 1988).
4

NUMERICAL RESULTS
In order to demonstrate the applicability of the present method, an isotropic
plate under blast loading and an orthotropic plate under step loading are considered for the aforementioned boundary conditions.
Isotropic Plate Under Blast Loading
Transient analysis of an isotropic thin plate under blast loading is performed.
In this analysis the plate geometry and the required material constants are taken
from (Chen et al. 2000) and given as follows:
E = 206840 N/mm2 , = 0.3, a = b = 508 mm, h = 3.4 mm, = 7900 kg/m3 .
The plate is subjected to a uniform blast loading of which intensity varies with
time in the manner shown in Fig. 1 (a). For detailed pressure intensity data, refer
to the related article (Chen et al. 2000).
The results of FSM (Chen et al. 2000) and GM can be seen in Fig. 1 (b). A
time step of 40 s (i.e., 40 106 ) is used in determining the dynamic response.
15
center deflection HmmL

pressure HNmm2 L

0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0

4
time HmillisecL

GM

10

FSM

5
0
-5
-10

4
6
time HmillisecL

(a)
(b)
FIG. 1. (a) Blast pressure versus time. (b) Center deflection versus time.
Orthotropic Plate Under Step Loading
In this analysis the response of an orthotropic thin plate to a uniform step
load is considered. The plate dimensions and material properties are taken as
(Chen et al. 2000),
E1 = 525000 N/mm2 , E2 = 21000 N/mm2 , G12 = G13 = G23 = 10500 N/mm2 ,
12 = 0.25, a = b = 250 mm, h = 5 mm, = 800 kg/m3 .
Here, E1 and E2 are the Youngs modulus of a lamina parallel and perpendicular
to fiber directions, respectively. G12 is shear modulus and 12 is Poisson ratio.
The orthotropic (single-layer) plate is subjected to a uniform step load of
intensity 1N/mm2 . The response of the plate is shown in Fig. 2, where dimensionless center deflection wc = w(0, 0)/h (Fig. 2 (a)) and dimensionless center
stress
xc = 525 xc /E1 (Fig. 2 (b)) values are given for GM and FSM. In this
case the time step is chosen as 10 s.
5

GM

FSM

stress

center deflection

GM

1
0

FSM

2
1
0

0.5
1
1.5
time HmillisecL

0.5
1
1.5
time HmillisecL

(a)
(b)
FIG. 2. (a) Dimensionless center deflection versus time. (b) Dimensionless
center stress versus time
CONCLUSIONS
The dynamic large deflection response of composite plates is analyzed by using
Galerkin approach with the use of Newmarks scheme in association with NewtonRaphson method. In the solution process, analytical computation has been done
wherever it is possible, and analytical-numerical type approach has been made for
all problems. The present solution methodology may be used to solve dynamic
large deflection analysis of plates in an easy and effective way with the help of a
symbolic math package. The results are compared to that of finite strips. A very
good agreement is observed. The method is found to determine closely both the
displacements and stresses with a few number of terms.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The financial support of the Istanbul Technical University Office of Research
Fund is gratefully acknowledged.
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