Asymptotic Approach for Thermoelastic Analysis of Laminated Composite Plates

A thermoelastic model for analyzing laminated composite plates under both mechanical and thermal loadings is constructed by the variational asymptotic method. The original three-dimensional nonlinear thermoelasticity problem is formulated based on a set of intrinsic variables defined on the reference plane and for arbitrary deformation of the normal line. Then the variational asymptotic method is used to rigorously split the three-dimensional problem into two problems: A nonlinear, two-dimensional, plate analysis over the reference plane to obtain the global deformation and a linear analysis through the thickness to provide the two-dimensional generalized constitutive law and the recovering relations to approximate the original three-dimensional results. The nonuniqueness of asymptotic theory correct up to a certain order is used to cast the obtained asymptotically correct second-order free energy into a Reissner–Mindlin type model to account for transverse shear deformation. The present theory is implemented into the computer program, variational asymptotic plate and shell analysis (VAPAS). Results from VAPAS for several cases have been compared with the exact thermoelasticity solutions, classical lamination theory, and first-order shear-deformation theory to demonstrate the accuracy and power of the proposed theory.