ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a theory for the bending, buckling, and free vibration of laminated cylindrical plates. It considers plates of shallow curvature so that simplifying assumptions can be utilized in developing the governing equations. Solutions are obtained for the bending, buckling, and free vibration of simply-supported cylindrical plates. The chapter describes both symmetric and unsymmetric laminates. The effect of curvature is ascertained by comparing cylindrical plate solutions to corresponding flat plate solutions. The chapter also considers the stability of curved plates under combined uniform axial load, internal pressure, and inplane shear load. It explores the application of energy principles for the purpose of deriving the equations of motion. Force and moment resultants can be obtained by substituting Equations into the constitutive relations. Rapid convergence is obtained for the displacements, while the force and moment resultants converge rather slowly.
