Abstract
This paper presents a new laminated plate theory for cylindrical bending of laminated plates. The new theory assumes that inplane displacements vary exponentially through plate thickness. The accuracy of the new theory is examined for symmetric/antisymmetric cross-ply, angle-ply and unsymmetric laminates under cylindrical bending. The numerical results show that the new theory provides displacements and stresses very accurately as compared to three-dimensional elasticity solutions. In particular, transverse shear stresses obtained from constitutive equations are predicted very accurately. The results are compared with those obtained from the first-order shear deformation plate theory and the classical laminated plate theory.
