Free vibration analysis of moderately thick rectangular laminated composite plates with arbitrary boundary conditions

A semi-analytical method is presented for accurately prediction of the free vibration behavior of generally laminated composite plates with arbitrary boundary conditions. The method employs the technique of separation of spatial variables within Hamilton\'s principle to obtain the equations of motion, including two systems of coupled ordinary homogeneous differential equations. Subsequently, by applying the laminate constitutive relations into the resulting equations two sets of coupled ordinary differential equations with constant coefficients, in terms of displacements, are achieved. The obtained differential equations are solved for the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes, with the use of the exact state-space approach. The formulation is exploited in the framework of the first-order shear deformation theory to incorporate the effects of transverse shear deformation and rotary inertia. The efficiency and accuracy of the present method are demonstrated by obtaining solutions to a wide range of problems and comparing them with finite element analysis and previously published results.