Application of the Ritz method for the bending and stress analysis of thin rectilinear orthotropic composite sector plates

This paper aims to investigate the linear elastic behavior of composite sector plates with rectilinear orthotropy in terms of displacement and stress fields determination. This variety of plates presents layers reinforced with unidirectional fibers organized along straight directions that make a variable angle with the generic radial direction. The fundamental equations for rectilinear orthotropic composite sector plates are obtained according to the Classical Lamination Theory. The mid-surface deflection of the sector plates is derived on the basis of an original analytical approach that combines the principle of virtual works with the Ritz method. Different boundary conditions in terms of displacement constraints are taken into account and, accordingly, the relative discretized forms of the displacement field are written as a linear combination of expressly obtained approximation functions. Commonly employed symmetrical stacking sequences are considered to demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of the proposed method in the final test cases.