Plate and Panel Structures of Isotropic, Composite and Piezoelectric Materials, Including Sandwich Construction

Plates and panels are primary components in many structures including space vehicles, aircraft, automobiles, buildings, bridge decks, ships and submarines. The ability to design, analyse, optimise and select the proper materials for these structures is a necessity for structural designers, analysts and researchers.

This text consists of four parts. The first deals with plates of isotropic (metallic and polymeric) materials. The second involves composite material plates, including anisotropy and laminate considerations. The third section treats sandwich constructions of various types, and the final section gives an introduction to plates involving piezoelectric materials, in which the "smart" or "intelligent" materials are used as actuators or sensors.

In each section, the formulations encompass plate structures subjected to static loads, dynamic loads, buckling, thermal/moisture environments, and minimum weight structural optimisation.

This is a textbook for a graduate course, an undergraduate senior course and a reference. Many homework problems are given in various chapters.

Inhalt

Plates and Panels of Isotropic Materials.- Equations of Linear Elasticity in Cartesian Coordinates.- Derivation of the Governing Equations for Isotropic Rectangular Plates.- Solutions to Problems of Isotropic Rectangular Plates.- Thermal Stresses in Plates.- Circular Isotropic Plates.- Buckling of Isotropic Columns and Plates.- Vibrations of Isotropic Beams and Plates.- Theorem of Minimum Potential Energy, Hamilton's Principle and Their Applications.- Reissner's Variational Theorem and Its Applications.- Plates and Panels of Composite Materials.- Anisotropic Elasticity and Composite Laminate Theory.- Plates and Panels of Composite Materials.- Elastic Instability (Buckling) of Composite Plates.- Linear and Nonlinear Vibration of Composite Plates.- Energy Methods for Composite Material Structures.- Plates and Panels of Sandwich Construction.- Governing Equations for Plates and Panels of Sandwich Construction.- Elastic Instability (Buckling) of Sandwich Plates.- Structural Optimization to Obtain Minimum Weight Sandwich Panels.- Plates Using Smart (Piezoelectric) Materials.- Piezoelectric Materials.- Piezoelectric Effects.- Use of Minimum Potential Energy to Analyze a Piezoelectric Beam.