Isogeometric plate element for unstiffened and blade stiffened laminates based on refined zigzag theory

This study presents an isogeometric plate element, IG-RZT based on the refined zigzag theory (RZT) to model bending behavior of blade stiffened and unstiffened thick or thin laminates. This element is free of shear-locking and shear correction factors due to the use of Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) functions which satisfy the requirement of C-1 continuity in the computation of transverse shear stresses. Comparison of the predictions with IG-RZT element with the previous benchmark solutions reveals fast convergence and high accuracy for general laminate layups under different loading and boundary conditions. Thus, the IG-RZT element can be adopted for computationally efficient and accurate analysis of unstiffened and stiffened flat laminates.