NEW APPROACH FOR ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED PLATES OF BIMODULUS COMPOSITE MATERIALS: FINITE LAYER ELEMENT METHOD

A new approach for analysis of laminated plates of bimodulus composite materials called Finite Layer Element Method(FLEM) is presented. The difficulty for selecting tenlion modulus or compression modulus in analysis of laminated plates of bimodulus composite materials is overcome by using FLE Method developed here. Compared with the Finite Layers Method, the accuracy of solutions is improved significantly. The present solutions are compared with the numerical results existing in the literature for special cases, and good agreement is obtained.