Dynamic Analysis of Composite Plate Subjected to Moving and Thermal Loads by Using Moving Element Method

The objective of this study is to develop a computational technique capable of performing dynamic analysis of a laminated composite plate resting on a Pasternak foundation, considering the effects of thermal and moving loads. It has been hypothesized that the temperature remains constant on the surface and primarily changes in a linear fashion along the direction of the plate’s thickness. The principle of superposition is applied to determine the strain of the plate, which simultaneously experiences the impact of both thermal and moving loads. The governing equation for the motion of the laminated composite plate is derived through the principle of virtual work. The moving element method (MEM) is utilized to discretize this governing equation, and subsequently, the final system of equations is obtained by assembling all the moving plate elements and is solved using Newmark’s β numerical technique. Upon conducting an analysis of the convergence of numerical solutions and validating them through benchmark cases, the proposed model is used to investigate the effect of temperature on the dynamic response of the laminated composite plate under varying model parameters and temperature conditions. The findings demonstrate that temperature had significant impacts on the displacement of the laminated composite plate in all cases considered. As the temperature rises, there is a corresponding increase in the displacement of the plate.