ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a description of the governing equations for laminated plates and of the effects of bending-membrane coupling and anisotropy on the complexity of these equations. The Donnell cylindrical shell equations are presented for laminated material and the presence of bending-membrane coupling is noted. The equations of equilibrium for laminated plates are identical to those applicable to plates of homogeneous material. Most practical laminates are constructed with midplane symmetry, and thus the bending-membrane coupling is eliminated. The chapter considers general laminated shells are beyond the scope of this presentation, a special class of important laminated shells. A beam theory which includes the effect of transverse shear deformation can be derived from an existing laminated plate theory in a matter analogous to the Kirchhoff-type analysis. The general constitutive equations for thin laminated cylindrical shells thus have the same form as the general constitutive equations for laminated plates.
