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*Department of Civil Engineering, Kuwait University,

P.O. Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait. Corresponding author.

**Nan Jeon Institute of Technology, Taiwan, Republic of China.

ABSTRACT

A general finite element formulation for laminated plate problem based on a higher-order displacement model is presented. The theory incorporates higher-order variations of transverse normal stress, َ_x and transverse shearing stress, ô_zx, respectively through the thickness of the plate. Hierarchies of C^o interpolations over plate elements are presented. Its performance is evaluated for a wide range of plates under uniformly distributed load and ranging from very thick to extremely thin plates. The effect of numerical schemes on the final result is examined. The behaviour of this laminated plate element with the present formulation is seen to be excellent in all the situations studied. This development gives rise to new families of finite elements which are computationally very efficient.

Keywords: Displacement; finite element; higher-order; laminated; plates.