Analysis of thick isotropic and cross-ply laminated plates by radial basis functions and a Unified Formulation

In this paper, we combine Carrera's Unified Formulation and a radial basis function collocation technique for predicting the static deformations and free vibration behavior of thin and thick isotropic and cross-ply laminated plates. Through numerical experiments, the capability and efficiency of this collocation technique for static and vibration problems are demonstrated, and the numerical accuracy and convergence are thoughtfully examined.