Boundary Element Analysis of a Laminated Composite Plate Containing Holes

This thesis uses the boundary integral equations proposed in Wu and Hsiao(2015) to analyze finite laminated plates with holes subjected to moments. Although the integral equations, which contain curvatures as geometric parameters, work well for free plates, they do not all apply to all boundary conditions. A new boundary integral formulation with rotations as parameters is proposed to remedy the issue. The formulation is based on a Stroh-Like formalism developed for the lamination theory with Cauchy integral formula. The numerical examples are a free plate or cantilever plate subjected to bending moments. The plates considered include homogeneous orthotropic, homogeneous anisotropic and two-layered anisotropic plates. The numerical results from boundary integral formulation are compared with those using finite element method to assess the advantages and disadvantages of two numerical methods.