Free Vibration of Sandwich Laminates with Two Higher-order Shear Deformable Facet Shell Element Models.

Two higher-order shear deformable finite element models using a higher-order facet shell element are presented for the free vibration analysis of layered anisotropic sandwich laminates. One of the higher-order shear deformation models accounts for the effects of both transverse shear strains/stresses and the transverse normal strain/stress, while the other includes only the effects of the transverse shear deformation. The accuracy of the present models is demonstrated by comparing the results of laminated sandwich plates with the available closed- form solutions. Benchmark solutions with the parametric study for the laminated sandwich cylindrical and spherical shell panels are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]