“…The shear deformation is often significant in composite plates, and the classical plate theories (Kirchoff, Mindlin) give good global results (displacements, lowest natural frequencies, in-plane stresses) only when the span to the thickness ratio is large enough [1], [2]. Moreover, these theories are 2-d idealizations of the 3-d elasticity problem and do not include the direct calculation of the out-of plane stress components.…”