This thesis introduces new conforming and non-conforming finite elements for thestatic and dynamic analysis of rotating composite layered plates and shells. Theelements consider parabolic distributions of transverse shear stresses, and based onLagrangian and Hermitian shape functions. They can deal with variable thicknessdistributions as well as uniform distributions, and they are fully capable to deal withrotating plate and shell structures, i. e. centrifugal stiffening and Coriolis force effectsare considered. Natural frequency analysis, forced vibration analysis, and flutteranalysis of composite layered plate and shell structures, employing those elements,have been investigated. A computer programming package based on the developedtheory was designed, and it is machine independent and user friendly. A modularapproach was adopted in the package structure to allow any further development tobe considered. Efficient frontal solvers were adopted in the package for differenttypes of analysis. The developed package has been successfully validated on a mainframe computer (VAX), Unix workstations, and personal computers. Several casestudies were investigated and the results obtained were compared with corresponding,published theoretical and/or experimental work. The package has proved to be a veryuseful tool for the design optimization of composite layered plates and shells bymeans of using different fibre angles for different layers so as to achieve the requiredstrength and/or stiffness.
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