Variable Kinematics Models for Advanced Composite Plates

This paper presents the application of a sublaminate-based variable kinematics approach to advanced composite structures with enhanced damping treatments such as viscoelastic layers or piezoelectric plies. The Sublaminate Generalized Unified Formulation (SGUF) is applied in conjunction with an efficient Ritz-type solution to free-vibration problems involving various mechanical and electrical boundary conditions. Conventional viscoelastic sandwich and piezoelectric bimorph structures are considered as well as more complex double-core plates. The role of thickness stretch in viscoelastic cores is pointed out and the possibility of reducing the number of degrees of freedom by virtue of the sublaminate approach is highlighted. The possibility of tailoring the accuracy and the number of degrees of freedom will be particularly meaningful for computationally intensive algorithms searching optimal configurations.