Yasin Heydarpour

Based on the three-dimensional theory of elasticity, the transient response of variable stiffness composite laminated (VSCL) plates with curvilinear fibers subjected to time-dependent concentrated load on elastic foundation is investigated. The fiber orientation angle varies linearly with respect to the in-plane coordinate in each layer. The layerwise theory in conjunction with a mixed integral–differential quadrature method is used to discretize the equations of motion and relevant boundary conditions in the spatial domain with arbitrary boundary conditions. Then, a novel multi-step method based on B-spline curves is presented to obtain a solution for the resulting system of ordinary differential equations in the temporal domain. Simplicity, accuracy and reliability of the novel combined I-DQ approach and in particular the multi-step techniques with respect to the Newmark time integration scheme are demonstrated. By performed comparison studies with available solutions in the open literature, the convergence and accuracy of the presented technique are demonstrated. Finally, the effects of fiber orientation, different geometric parameters, boundary conditions and elastic foundation coefficients on the transient behavior of the VSCL plates are parametrically studied. It is expected that the presented multi-step technique is to be used in a variety of science and engineering problems in future studies.