• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.457-471
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• 2016

To analyze laminated composite and sandwich beams under temperature loads, a $C^0$-type Reddy's beam theory considering transverse normal strain is proposed in this paper. Although transverse normal strain is taken into account, the number of unknowns is not increased. Moreover, the first derivatives of transverse displacement have been taken out from the in-plane displacement fields, so that the $C^0$ interpolation functions are only required for the finite element implementation. Based on the proposed model, a three-node beam element is presented for analysis of thermal responses. Numerical results show that the proposed model can accurately and efficiently analyze the thermoelastic problems of laminated composites.