A comparative study for bending of cross-ply laminated plates resting on elastic foundations

Two hyperbolic displacement models are used for the bending response of simply-supported orthotropic laminated composite plates resting on two-parameter elastic foundations under mechanical loading. The models contain hyperbolic expressions to account for the parabolic distributions of transverse shear stresses and to satisfy the zero shear-stress conditions at the top and bottom surfaces of the plates. The present theory takes into account not only the transverse shear strains, but also their parabolic variation across the plate thickness and requires no shear correction coefficients in computing the shear stresses. The governing equations are derived and their closed-form solutions are obtained. The accuracy of the models presented is demonstrated by comparing the results obtained with solutions of other theories models given in the literature. It is found that the theories proposed can predict the bending analysis of cross-ply laminated composite plates resting on elastic foundations rather accurately. The effects of Winkler and Pasternak foundation parameters, transverse shear deformations, plate aspect ratio, and side-to-thickness ratio on deflections and stresses are investigated.