Radial basis functions collocation and a unified formulation for bending, vibration and buckling analysis of laminated plates, according to a variation of Murakami’s zig-zag theory

In this paper, we propose a variation of the use of Murakami’s zig-zag theory for the analysis of laminated plates. The new theory accounts for through-the-thickness deformation, by considering a quadratic evolution of the transverse displacement with the thickness coordinate. The equations of motion and the boundary conditions are obtained by the Carrera’s Unified Formulation, and further interpolated by collocation with radial basis functions. This paper considers the analysis of static deformations, free vibrations and buckling loads on laminated composite plates.