Fronk, Thomas Harris2014-03-142014-03-141991-06-26etd-07282008-134729http://hdl.handle.net/10919/38903Laminated composite plates have become an important and proven structural material in aerospace and ocean vehicles. However, because of the inherent orthotropy of laminated composite materials the analysis of these structures is complex and usually cannot be adequately performed using classical methods. In this dissertation the formulation of the fully coupled fluid-structure interaction of a laminated composite plate and its surrounding fluid medium is presented. The solution technique involves the finite element method for modeling the structural response and the boundary element method for modeling the acoustic field. The model incorporates the Mindlin plate theory which includes five degrees of freedom. An improved integration technique is demonstrated which significantly reduces the approximation error. Storage requirements are reduced by grouping complex numbers. Finally the fully coupled fluid-structure interaction involving laminated composite plates is modeled using the combined FEM-BEM approach demonstrating the usefulness and the significance of the method.xvi, 213 leavesBTDapplication/pdfenIn CopyrightLD5655.V856 1991.F766Boundary element methods -- ResearchLaminated materials -- ResearchDissertationhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-07282008-134729/