Static and vibration analysis of laminated composite beams with an interlaminar shear stress continuity theory

A finite element method for stress and vibration analysis of laminated composite beams was investigated. The analysis was based on a multilayered theory presented by Lu and Liu. This theory accounts for the continuity of interlaminar shear stress. The principle of minimum potential energy was used in the finite element formulation. The interlaminar shear stress was obtained directly from the constitutive equations. It was verified that the present technique was able to give excellent results for displacements, stresses and vibration frequencies for both thin and thick composite beams. The effects of the number of layers and the number of elements on the convergence were also discussed.