Theories and finite elements for multilayered anisotropic, composite plates and shells. (Q696102)

The paper is a review of available theories and finite elements, FEs, that have been developed for multilayered anisotropic composite plate and shell structures. 325 books and papers have been used by the author. Of all the possible topics, this review covers mainly the aspects related to two-dimensional modeling of layered structures and to finite element implementations. The paper has been divided into three parts. Part I is devoted to the description and development of possible approaches to plate and shell structures. Complicating effects that have been introduced by anisotropic behavior and layered constructions, such as high transverse deformabilty, zig-zag effects and interlaminar continuity, have been discussed. Two-dimensional theories have been dealt with in Part II. Contributions based on axiomatic, asymptotic and continuum based approaches have been overviewed. Classical theories and their refinements are considered. Both cases of equivalent single-layer and layer-wise variables descriptions are discussed. The three possible zig-zag approaches (Lekhnitskii-Ren, Ambartsumian-Whitney-Rath-Das, Reissner-Murakami-Carrera) have been discussed. FE implementations are examined in Part III. The possible developments of finite elements for layered plates and shells are outlined. FEs based on the theories considered in Part II are discussed along with those approaches which consist in a specific application of FE techniques, such as hybrid methods and so-called global/local techniques. The author describes the extension of FEs that were originally developed for isotropic one-layered structures to multilayered plates and shells. Development of available zig-zag FEs has been considered for the three above cases of zig-zag theories. FEs based on other approaches are also discussed. Unfortunately, the paper does not report on numerical results and assessments for the reviewed theories and FEs.