Bending analysis of antisymmetric angle-ply laminated plates including transverse shear effects

In this paper an approximate analysis is presented for the bending of rectangular, simply supported, antisymmetric angle-ply laminated plates subjected to sinusoidal transverse loads. A published refined shear deformation theory is used to obtain a closed-form solution. Numerical results are compared with those given by three-dimensional elasticity solutions, first-order shear deformation theory solutions and classical lamination theory solutions. The present theory gives a better estimate of the stresses and deflections.