Impact Induced Stress Waves in an Anisotropic Plate

Stress wave propagation in an anisotropic plate due to impact forces has been examined. The plate is modeled as a number of identical anisotropic layers. Mindlin's approximate theory of plates is applied to each layer to obtain a set of difference-differential equations of motion with use of the interlaminar stresses and displacements as explicit variables. Dispersion relationships for harmonic waves are found when traction-free boundary conditions are applied to both surfaces of the plate and appropriate correction factors are found. The difference-differential equations are reduced to difference equations via integral transforms. With given impact boundary conditions, these equations are solved for an arbitrary number of layers in the plate and the transient propagation of stress waves is calculated by means of a Fast Fourier Transform algorithm.