Composite Structures xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Analysis of composite plates using a layerwise theory and a differential

quadrature nite element method
Bo Liu a,b,, A.J.M. Ferreira b, Y.F. Xing a, A.M.A. Neves b
a
b

The Solid Mechanics Research Centre, Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing 100191, China
Departamento de Engenharia Mecnica, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Composite plate
Layerwise theory
Differential quadrature nite element
method
Bending
High accuracy

a b s t r a c t
A layerwise shear deformation theory for composite laminated plates is discretized using a differential
quadrature nite element method (DQFEM). The DQFEM is a weak-form differential quadrature method
that can provide highly accurate results using only a few sampling points. The layerwise theory proposed
by Ferreira is based on an expansion of Mindlins rst-order shear deformation theory in each layer and
results for a laminated plate with three layers were presented as example in the original paper. This work
generalized the layerwise theory to plates with any number of layers. The combination of the DQFEM
with Ferreiras layerwise theory allows a very accurate prediction of the eld variables. Laminated composite and sandwich plates were analyzed. The DQFEM solutions were compared with various models in
literature and especially showed very good agreements with the exact solutions in literature that was
based on a similar layerwise theory. The analysis of composite plates based on Ferreiras layerwise theory
indicates that the DQFEM is an effective method for high accuracy analysis of large-scale problems.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Composite and sandwich plates are one of the most signicant
applications of composite materials in industry. Layers are stacked
together to form thin or thick laminates. When the main emphasis
of the analysis is to determine the global response of the laminated
component, equivalent single-layer laminate theories (ESL theories) [1,2] is accurate enough. The classical laminate plate theory,
the rst-order shear deformation theory [37], and higher-order
theories [8] are commonly used examples of simple ESL theories.
In some cases, particularly in sandwich applications, the difference
between material properties makes it difcult for such theories to
fully accommodate the bending behavior. Another set of theories
that was introduced back in the 1980s are the layerwise theories,
which consider independent degrees of freedom for each layer
[916]. Layerwise displacement elds provide a much more correct
representation of the moderate to severe cross-sectional warping
associated with the deformation of thick laminates [2]. A very
recent and comprehensive review of such theories in the analysis
of multilayered plates and shells has been presented by Carrera
[17]. This work adopts Ferreiras layerwise theory [1] that is based

Corresponding author at: The Solid Mechanics Research Centre, Beihang

University (BUAA), Beijing 100191, China.
E-mail address: liubo68@buaa.edu.cn (B. Liu).

on an expansion of Mindlins rst-order shear deformation theory

in each layer. The displacement continuity at layers interface is
guaranteed. Also the theory directly produces very accurate transverse shear stress, although constant, in each layer.
Most of the spacial discretization techniques thus far have been
based on nite differences (FDM) and nite elements (FEM). Such
low order schemes typically use low order basis functions and
the accuracy is improved through mesh renement. High order
schemes like the hierarchical nite element method (HFEM)
[18,19], the radial basis functions (RBFs) [20,21], the mesh free
methods [22,23], the differential quadrature method (DQM) [24],
and more recently, the iso-geometric analysis (IGA) [25] and the
differential quadrature method nite element method (DQFEM)
[2628], successively emerged as highly accurate numerical methods. All works via high order methods yield excellent results due to
the use of the high-order or global basis functions. High order
methods tend to give accurate results with far fewer degrees of
freedom than low order schemes and have made noticeable success. This work adopts the DQFEM [26,27] that is a weak-form differential quadrature method in essence. The DQFEM used the
differential quadrature (DQ) rule and the GaussLobatto quadrature rule to directly discretize the potential functional of structures
to obtain the stiffness and mass matrices that are the same as those
in the nite element method. The DQFEM has overcome the limitations of the DQM pointed out by Bert and Malik [24], and was

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.101
0263-8223/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu B et al. Analysis of composite plates using a layerwise theory and a differential quadrature nite element method.
Compos Struct (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.101

B. Liu et al. / Composite Structures xxx (2015) xxxxxx

the stiffness and mass matrices of identical layers only need to be

computed once.
For simplicity, in the following the superscript i is omitted,
since the formulations for all layers are the same. The straindisplacement relations for ith layer are given by

x(i +1)

hi+1

z (i +1)

8
9
exx >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
< eyy >
=

z (i )

x(i )

hi

Dx

6
6 0
6
cxy 6
6 Dy
>
>
>
>
6
>
>
c
>
>
4 0
yz >
>
>
>
:
;
czx
0

z (i 1)

x(i 1)

hi-1

zDx

Dy

zDy

Dx

zDy

zDx

38 9
>
> u0 >
>
> >
>
7>
0 7>
v0 >
>
>
<
=
7
7
0 7 wx
> >
>
7>
Dy 5>
wy >
>
>
>
>
>
: >
;
Dx
w
0

3a

or
Fig. 1. One-dimensional representation of the layerwise kinematics.

e Du

hoped to be a competitive method with FEM for analysis of

large-scale problems.
This paper focuses for the rst time on the analysis of composite
laminated plates by the differential quadrature nite element
method (DQFEM) [26,27] and using a layerwise theory. This
combination allows the accurate analysis of isotropic, composite,
and sandwich plates of arbitrary shape and boundary conditions.

where Dx @=@x and Dy @=@y are differential operators. Note that

D Dz, namely, the differential operator matrix is a function of z.
Neglecting rz for each orthotropic layer, the stressstrain relations
in the ber local coordinate system can be expressed as

8
r1
>
>
>
>
>
>
< r2

ui x; y; z u0 x; y zi wi
x

x; y; z v

i
0 x; y

wi
y

wi x; y; z wx; y
The continuous of displacement u and
(see Fig. 1) requires that

hi i hi1 i1
w
w
2 x
2 x
hi i hi1 i1
v 0i1 x; y v i
w
w
0 x; y
2 y
2 y
i1

u0

at the layers interfaces

x(1)

Q 11

Q 12

Q 22

0
0

Q 33
0

0
Q 44

9
38
e1 >
>
>
>
>
>
7>
>
e2 >
0 7>
>
>
<
=
7
c
0 7
7> 12 >
7>
>
c >
0 5>
>
>
>
> 23 >
>
:
c31 ;
Q 55
0

E1
E2
; Q 22
;
1  t12 t21
1  t12 t21
G12 ; Q 44 G23 ; Q 55 G31 ;

Q 11
Q 33

Q 12 t12 Q 11

t21 E1 t12 E2

in which E1 , E2 , t12 , t21 , G12 , G23 , and G31 are material properties of
lamina i.
By performing adequate coordinate transformation, the stress
strain relations in the global xyz coordinate system can be
obtained as

8
9
rxx >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
< ryy >
=

sxy
>
>
>
syz
>
>
>
:
szx

where hi are the ith layer thickness and zi 2 hi =2; hi =2 are the ith
layer z coordinates. Using the recursion formula Eq. (2), one only
needs to consider one layer. For example, in nite element method,
after the stiffness and mass matrices of each layer are derived, the
global stiffness and mass matrices of all layers can be obtained by
using Eq. (2). Since laminated plates always have identical layers,

where subscripts 1 and 2 are the directions of the ber and in-plane
normal to ber, respectively; subscript 3 indicates the direction
normal to the plate; and the reduced stiffness components, Q ij ,
are given by

x; y u0 x; y

9
>
>
>
>
>
>
=

6
6 Q 12
6
s12 6
6 0
>
>
>
>
6
>
>
s23 >
>
4 0
>
>
>
>
:
;
0
s31

2. A layerwise theory
The layerwise theory proposed by Ferreira [1] is used in this
work. The theory is based on the assumption of a rst-order shear
deformation theory in each layer and the imposition of displacement continuity at the layers interfaces. Reference [1] considered
a laminated plate with three layer for simplicity. This work generalized the theory to plates with any number of layers. The displacement of the ith layer, according to rst order shear deformation
theory, can be written as

3b

 11
Q
6
6 Q 12
6

6
6 Q 16
>
>
6
>
>
4 0
>
>
;
0

 12
Q
 22
Q

 16
Q
 26
Q

 26
Q

 66
Q

0
0

0
0

0
 44
Q
 45
Q

9
38
exx >
>
>
>
>
>
7>
>
eyy >
>
>
0 7>
<
=
7
7
c
0 7
xy
>
>
>
>
 45 7
cyz >
>
>
5>
Q
>
>
>
>
:

czx ;
Q 55
0

6a

or

r Q e

6b

By considering h as the angle between the x and 1 axes, where the 1

axis is the rst principal material axis, usually connected with ber

y(1)

1
Fig. 2. The deformation shape w1
x , wy and w of the square plate with R = 5.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu B et al. Analysis of composite plates using a layerwise theory and a differential quadrature nite element method.
Compos Struct (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.101

B. Liu et al. / Composite Structures xxx (2015) xxxxxx

xy(1)

(y1)

x(1)

(yz1)

xz(1)

Fig. 3. The stress resultants at z 2h=5 calculated from layer 1 at z1 h1 =2, R = 5.

K i ui qi

direction, the components Q ij can be calculated by adequate coordinate transformation (as in [2]).
As in higher-order theories, this layerwise theory does not
require the use of shear-correction factors. The principle of virtual
displacements are required to derive the nite element matrices in
this work. The virtual strain energy dU and the virtual work done
by applied forces dV are given by

dU

rT dedX

 DdudX
DuT Q

The displacement vector u

ui

and

dV 

where u0 ,

qT dudX

can be written as

8 i 9
>
u0 >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
i >
>
>
>
v
< 0 >
=
wi
x >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> wyi >
>
>
>
>
>
:
;
w
i

9
i

10

i
i
v 0i , wxi , wyi and w are the discrete values of ui
0 ; v 0 , wx ,

wi
y

and w, respectively. In the present work, only symmetric laminates are considered; therefore, u0 and v 0 of layer 2 can be discarded. For a three-layered laminated plate as considered in [1],

where X denotes the domain of the laminate, and q is the external

distributed load. Usually Eqs. (7) and (8) are expanded by substituting Eqs. (3) and (6). This process will becomes complex with the
increase of the number of displacements. Therefore, an alternative
but equivalent way will be presented in next section.
Discretize the virtual strain energy and virtual work using nite
element method, one obtains the nite element formulation for ith
layer as

the displacement eld u0 and

be expressed as

v 0i

of the rst and third layers can

h1 1 h2 2
w  wx
2 x
2
h1 1 h2 2
1
v 0 x; y  wy  wy
2
2
1

u0 x; y 

11

Table 1
Square laminated plate under uniform load (R = 5).
Method
HSDT [30]
FSDT [30]
CLT
Ferreira [31]
Ferreira [32]
HSDT [33]
HSDT [33]
HSDT [33]
Ferreira [1]
Ferreira [1]
Ferreira [1]
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Exact [29]

15
11
15
21
11
15
21
5
7
11
15
25


w

r 1x

r 2x

r 3x

r 1y

r 2y

r 3y

s1xz

s1yz

256.13
236.10
216.94
258.74
257.38
253.671
256.239
257.110
252.084
255.920
257.523
260.791
258.799
258.828
258.833
258.835
258.97

62.38
61.87
61.141
59.21
58.725
59.6447
60.1834
60.3660
58.8628
59.6503
59.9675
62.3697
60.2134
60.2396
60.2466
60.2540
60.353

46.91
49.50
48.623
45.61
46.980
46.4292
46.8581
47.0028
45.4232
46.0366
46.2906
48.1774
46.4949
46.5201
46.5151
46.5098
46.623

9.382
9.899
9.783
9.122
9.396
9.2858
9.3716
9.4006
9.8846
9.2073
9.2581
9.6355
9.2990
9.3040
9.3030
9.3020
9.340

38.93
36.65
36.622
37.88
37.643
38.0694
38.3592
38.4563
37.6901
38.1408
38.3209
40.4410
38.4624
38.4895
38.4914
38.4951
38.491

30.33
29.32
29.297
29.59
27.714
29.9313
30.1642
30.2420
29.4765
29.8296
29.9740
31.6633
30.0898
30.1130
30.1118
30.1091
30.097

6.065
5.864
5.860
5.918
4.906
5.9863
6.0328
6.0484
5.8953
5.9659
5.9948
6.3327
6.0180
6.0226
6.0224
6.0218
6.161

3.089
3.313
4.5899
3.593
3.848
3.8449
4.2768
4.5481
3.8311
3.9773
4.0463
4.2994
4.1297
4.1153
4.1080
4.1076
4.3641

2.566
2.444
3.386
3.593
2.839
1.9650
2.2227
2.3910
2.5319
2.5375
2.3901
3.5372
3.4196
3.4118
3.4028
3.3994
3.2675

Please cite this article in press as: Liu B et al. Analysis of composite plates using a layerwise theory and a differential quadrature nite element method.
Compos Struct (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.101

B. Liu et al. / Composite Structures xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Table 2
Square laminated plate under uniform load (R = 10).
Method
HSDT [30]
FSDT [30]
CLT
Ferreira [31]
Ferreira [32]
HSDT [33]
HSDT [33]
HSDT [33]
Ferreira [1]
Ferreira [1]
Ferreira [1]
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Exact [29]

15
11
15
21
11
15
21
5
7
11
15
25


w

r 1x

r 2x

r 3x

r 1y

r 2y

r 3y

s1xz

s1yz

152.33
131.095
118.87
159.402
158.55
153.008
154.249
154.658
155.037
157.374
158.380
160.497
159.371
159.396
159.403
159.406
159.38

64.65
67.80
65.332
64.16
62.723
64.7415
65.2223
65.3809
63.5984
64.4828
64.8462
67.4660
65.1601
65.2015
65.2178
65.2306
65.332

51.31
54.24
48.857
47.72
50.16
49.4716
49.8488
49.9729
47.4765
48.1544
48.4434
50.4716
48.7223
48.7577
48.744
48.733
48.857

5.131
4.424
5.356
4.772
5.01
4.9472
4.9849
4.9973
4.7476
4.8154
4.8443
5.0472
4.8722
4.8758
4.8744
4.8733
4.903

42.83
40.10
40.099
42.970
42.565
42.8860
43.1521
43.2401
42.6696
43.1887
43.3989
45.7919
43.6173
43.6378
43.6425
43.6494
43.566

33.97
32.08
32.079
42.900
34.052
33.3524
33.5663
33.6366
32.7369
33.1392
33.3062
35.2056
33.4913
33.5098
33.5061
33.5002
33.413

3.397
3.208
3.208
3.290
3.400
3.3352
3.3566
3.3637
3.2737
3.3139
3.3306
3.5206
3.3491
3.3510
3.3506
3.3500
3.500

3.147
3.152
4.3666
3.518
3.596
2.7780
3.1925
3.5280
3.7016
3.8447
3.9237
4.1910
4.0360
4.0040
3.9957
3.9957
4.0959

2.587
2.676
3.7075
3.518
3.053
1.8207
2.1360
2.3984
3.3051
3.2183
2.8809
3.5244
3.4160
3.3982
3.3862
3.3829
3.5154

Table 3
Square laminated plate under uniform load (R = 15).
Method
HSDT [30]
FSDT [30]
CLT
Ferreira [31]
Ferreira [32]
HSDT [33]
HSDT [33]
HSDT [33]
Ferreira [1]
Ferreira [1]
Ferreira [1]
Present
Present
Present
Present
Present
Exact [29]

15
11
15
21
11
15
21
5
7
11
15
25


w

r 1x

r 2x

r 3x

r 1y

r 2y

r 3y

s1xz

s1yz

110.43
90.85
81.768
121.821
121.184
113.594
114.387
114.644
118.298
120.077
120.988
122.549
121.737
121.764
121.774
121.777
121.72

66.62
70.04
69.135
65.650
63.214
66.3646
66.7830
66.9196
64.9159
65.8418
66.2911
68.9406
66.5786
66.6355
66.6633
66.6800
66.787

51.97
56.03
55.308
47.09
50.571
49.8957
50.2175
50.3230
46.8241
47.5260
47.8992
49.8964
48.1702
48.2074
48.1818
48.1664
48.299

3.465
3.753
3.687
3.140
3.371
3.3264
3.3478
3.3549
3.1216
3.1684
3.1933
3.3264
3.2113
3.2138
3.2121
3.2111
3.238

44.92
41.39
41.410
45.850
45.055
45.2979
45.5427
45.6229
45.4432
46.0049
46.2924
48.7625
46.5131
46.5281
46.5367
46.5463
46.424

35.41
33.11
33.128
34.420
36.044
34.9096
35.1057
35.1696
34.2237
34.6566
34.8898
36.8343
35.0824
35.0953
35.0878
35.0790
34.955

2.361
2.208
2.209
2.294
2.400
2.3273
2.3404
2.3446
2.2816
2.3104
2.3260
2.4556
2.3388
2.3397
2.3392
2.3386
2.494

3.035
3.091
4.2825
3.466
3.466
2.1686
2.6115
3.0213
3.6123
3.7556
3.8311
4.1139
3.9683
3.9264
3.9190
3.9192
3.9638

2.691
2.764
3.8287
3.466
3.099
1.5578
1.9271
2.2750
3.8412
3.6695
3.2562
3.5367
3.4308
3.4062
3.3932
3.3580
3.5768

Therefore, the displacement eld of the three layers can be

expressed by the global independent displacement elds as

Table 4
Laminated square plate (0/90/0) under sinusoidal load.
Method


w

r xx

r yy

szx

syz

Three-dimensional (Pagano
[34])
Liou and Sun [35]
Layerwise linear LD1 Carrera
[36]
Mixed layerwise LM4 Carrera
[36]
Reddy [8]
Ferreira [1], layerwise
(N = 11)
Ferreira [1], layerwise
(N = 15)
Ferreira [1], layerwise
(N = 21)
Present (N = 5)
Present (N = 7)
Present (N = 11)
Present (N = 15)

0.7530

0.590

0.285

0.357

0.1228

0.7546
0.7371

0.580
0.5608

0.285
0.2740

0.367
0.3726

0.127
0.1338

0.7528

0.5801

0.2796

0.3626

0.1249

0.7125
0.7399

0.5684
0.5711

0.2801

0.1033
0.3560

0.0872

0.7420

0.5731

0.2808

0.3582

0.0931

8 1 9 2
u >
>
0  12 h2
0
 12 h1
>
> 0 >
>
>
1 >
6 0 1h
1
>
>
>
>
0  2 h2
6
>
2 1
>v0 >
>
6
>
>
>
>
6 ..
>
>
.
..
.
>
>
.
...
> .. >
> 6 .
.
.
>
<
= 6
6
3
1
6 0
h
0
0
u0
2 2
>
>
6
>
>
1
>
>
6
3
>v >
> 6 0
0
0
h
>
2 2
>
0 >
>
> 6
>
>. >
> 6 ..
..
..
..
>
>
>
. >
.
.
.
>
> 4 .
>
>. >
>
:
;
0
0
0
0
w

0.7427

0.5738

0.2810

0.3590

0.0953

or

0.7391
0.7402
0.7402
0.7402

0.5615
0.5715
0.5717
0.5717

0.2758
0.2806
0.2807
0.2807

0.3526
0.3583
0.3582
0.3582

0.0923
0.0958
0.0958
0.0958


u Hu

h2 2 h3 3
w wx
2 x
2
h2 2 h3 3
3
v 0 x; y wy wy
2
2

12

0
..
.

0
..
.

1
h
2 3

0
..
.

1
h
2 3

..
.

38
9
0 > w1 >
>
x >
>
> 1 >
>
>
07
7>
>
> wy >
>
7>
>
>
>
7
>
>
... 7>
> w2 >
>
>
=
7< x >
7
0 7 w2
y
>
7>
>
> 3 >
>
07
> wx >
>
7>
>
>
>
7>
>
>
.. 7>
3 >
>
wy >
>
. 5>
>
>
>
>
:
;
w
1

13

Therefore, the nal stiffness and mass matrices of the three-layered

laminated plates can be written as

K 1

6
K HT 4 0

14

2
u0 x; y

0
K 2
0

7
0 5H;

K 3

8
9
1
>
<q >
=
q H T q2
>
: 3 >
;
q

15

where H T and H are required by the principle of virtual displacements shown in Eqs. (7) and (8). It is clear that for layers of identical

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B. Liu et al. / Composite Structures xxx (2015) xxxxxx

property, one only needs to compute the stiffness matrix of one

layer.

4. Numerical examples
4.1. Three-layer square sandwich plate under uniform load

3. The differential quadrature nite element method

The differential quadrature nite element method (DQFEM)
[26,27] is a weak-form differential quadrature method (DQM)
[24]. Namely, the strain energy and work potential of structures
are directly discretized by the DQM together with the Gauss
Lobatto integration to obtain the global stiffness and mass matrices
of nite element method. The DQM approximates the nth derivatives of a eld variable f x at point xi by a weighted linear sum as
n

fi

N
X
n
Aij f j

i 1; 2; . . . ; N

16

A simply supported square sandwich plate under a uniform

transverse load is considered. This is a classical sandwich example
of Srinivas [29]. The material properties of the sandwich core
 core , are expressed as
expressed in the stiffness matrix, Q

0:999781 0:231192

7
6
0
0
0
7
6 0:231192 0:524886
7
6

7
6
0
0
0:262931
0
0
Q core 6
7
7
6
0
0
0
0:266810
0
5
4
0
0
0
0
0:159914
22

j1

Skins material properties are related to core properties by a factor R

as follows:

or

f n An f

17

n
Aij

are the weighting coefcients of the nth order deriva-

where

tives, and N the number of grid points in the x-direction. For the
computation of weighting coefcients and more details about the
DQM, one may refer to the survey paper [24]. The DQM for two
dimensional problem can be expressed in similar way as Eq. (16)
or (17) [24,26,27].
The GaussLobatto quadrature is the Gauss integration with
two endpoints xed, which can be found in mathematics handbooks or in [19]. Here a simple introduction of it is presented to
make the paper self-contained. The GaussLobatto quadrature rule
with precision degree (2n-3) for function f x dened at [1, 1] is

n
X
 
f ndx
C j f nj

1

18

j1

where the weights C j of GaussLobatto integration are given by

C1 Cn

2
;
nn  1

Cj

2
nn  1P n1 nj 2

j 1; n

19

where nj is the (j  1)th zero of P 0n1 n. Liu et al. [19] presented the
detail of computing roots for Legendre polynomials using the recursion
formula of Legendre polynomials if more than 40 roots are required.
Denote A1 and B1 as the two-dimensional DQM weighting
coefcient matrix for rst order derivative with respect to x and
y, respectively. Using the differential quadrature method, the differential operator matrix D in Eq. (3) can be discretized as

A1

6
6 0
6 1
D6
6B
6
4 0
0

zA1

B1
A1

0
zB1

zB1
zA1

7
7
7
7
7
1 7
B 5
0
0

20

A1

where I is a unit matrix. Formulating the GaussLobatto quadrature

 and denoting it as Q
~ , then
weight in the material constant matrix Q
the stiffness matrix of ith layer can be expressed as

K i

hi =2

hi =2

~ Ddz
DT Q

hi =2

 i zdz
K

21

hi =2

Using the Gauss quadrature rule one only needs two Gauss points to
do the integral in Eq. (21). Clearly, simpler than expanding Eq. (7).
The obtaining of load vector qi is simple, since only Gauss
Lobatto quadrature is needed [27].

 skin RQ
 core
Q

23

Transverse displacement and stresses are normalized through the

following factors:

 wa=2; a=2; 0
w

r 1x
r 3x
r 2y
s1xz

0:999781
hq

rx1 a=2; a=2; h=2

q

2
x a=2; a=2; 2h=5

q

ry1 a=2; a=2; 2h=5

q

s2
xz 0; a=2; 0
q

r 2x

q

r 1y

r 3y

s1yz

r1
x a=2; a=2; 2h=5
r

1
y a=2; a=2; h=2

q

24

r2
y a=2; a=2; 2h=5
q

s2
yz a=2; 0; 0
q

In order to clearly show how well the boundary conditions are satised, rst the deformation modes of three of the seven independent variables in the right side of Eq. (13) are shown in Fig. 2. The
stress resultants at z 2h=5 calculated from layer 1 at
z1 h1 =2 are shown in Fig. 3. It is clear that the boundary conditions are satised very well.
Transverse displacement and stresses for a sandwich plate are
indicated in Tables 13 and compared with various formulations,
where N is the number of sampling points used in each method
for convergence studies. One can see the good agreement between
the present results and the exact results. The present results agree
with the deection of exact results for 3 signicant digits, agree
with the normal stress of exact results for about 2 signicant digits
in general, and agree with the shear stress of exact results for one
signicant digit. One can also see the fast convergence rate of the
DQFEM from Tables 13. Even with a minimum number of sampling points, N = 5, the present method still has good accuracy.
The present method has about 35 signicant digits converged
when N = 15, while those in literature have only 12 signicant
digits converged.
4.2. Three-layer (0/90/0) square cross-ply laminated plate under
sinusoidal load
A square laminate of length a and thickness h is composed of
three equally thick layers oriented at (0/90/0). It is simply supported on all edges and subjected to a sinusoidal vertical pressure
of the form

pz P sin

px
a

sin

py
a

25

Please cite this article in press as: Liu B et al. Analysis of composite plates using a layerwise theory and a differential quadrature nite element method.
Compos Struct (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.101

B. Liu et al. / Composite Structures xxx (2015) xxxxxx

where the origin of the coordinate system is located at the

lower-left corner on the mid-plane. For this example, there is a
three dimensional exact solution by Pagano [34]. Here we compare
the present solution by DQFEM for a/h = 10 with various models,
particularly full mixed and hybrid nite element method (FEM)
analysis, classical FEM analysis, etc. The material properties are

E1 25:0E2 ;

G12 G13 0:5E2

G23 0:2E2 ;

t12 0:25

26

The numerical results are presented in Table 4, in a normalized

form, as indicated by the following expressions:
3


w

102 wa=2; a=2; 0h E2

r yy

Pa
ryy a=2; a=2; h=6h2

Pa2
s
yz a=2; 0; 0h
syz
Pa

r xx

rxx a=2; a=2; h=2h2

Pa2
s 0; a=2; 0h
szx zx
Pa

27

As can be seen that, the present methodology converges to very

good results, especially agree with the layerwise results of
Ferreira [1] very well, since this work are based on the layerwise
formulation of [1]. The convergence of the DQFEM in this case is
even better than the case of Section 4.1, as can be seen that the
DQFEM already converged very well when the sampling points
number N = 7.
5. Conclusions
The authors have used the differential quadrature nite element method (DQFEM) for vibration of isotropic beams, plates
and three-dimensional elasticity [26,27]. In all cases, excellent
results that closely agree with exact results were obtained. In this
paper, the analysis of composite laminated plates by the use of the
DQFEM [26,27] and using a layerwise theory [1] with independent
rotations in each layer is performed for the rst time. The layerwise theory [1] was also generalized to plates with any number
of layers. The stiffness and mass matrices were schematically formulated. Composite laminated plates and sandwich plates were
considered for testing of the present methodology and the results
showed excellent accuracy for all cases. This layerwise theory combined with DQFEM discretization is a simple yet very effective and
accurate numerical technique for the analysis of thick or thin composite or sandwich laminates and their structures.
Acknowledgments
The nancial support of National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant Nos. 11402015, 11372021, 11172028), the specialized research fund for the doctoral program of higher education
(20131102110039), FCT-Fundao para a Cincia e a Tecnologia
to
Project
PTDC/EMS-PRO/2044/2012
and
to
Grant
SFRH/BPD/99591/2014 is gratefully acknowledged.
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Please cite this article in press as: Liu B et al. Analysis of composite plates using a layerwise theory and a differential quadrature nite element method.
Compos Struct (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.101