Finite volume analysis of laminated composite plates

Summary A numerical procedure for analysis of general laminated plates under transverse load is developed utilizing the Mindlin plate theory, the finite volume discretization, and a segregated solution algorithm. The force and moment balance equations with the laminate constitutive relations are written in the form of a generic transport equation. In order to obtain discrete counterparts of the governing equations, the plate is subdivided into N control volumes by a Cartesian numerical mesh. As a result, five sets of N linear equations with N unknowns are obtained and solved using the conjugate gradient method with preconditioning. For the method validation, a number of test cases are designed to cover thick and thin laminated plates with aspect ratio (width to thickness) from 4 to 100. Simply supported orthotropic, symmetric cross‐ply, and angle‐ply laminated plates under uniform and sinusoidal pressure loads are solved, and results are compared with available analytical solutions. The shear correction factor of 5/6 is utilized throughout the procedure, which is consistent with test cases used in the reviewed literature. Comparisons of the finite volume method results for maximum deflections at the center of the plate and the Navier solutions obtained for aspect ratios 10, 20, and 100 shows a very good agreement. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.