  The effect of moisture concentration and the thermal gradient on the free
flexural vibration and buckling of laminated composite plates are investigated.
The effect of a centrally located cutout on the global response is also
studied. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the extended
finite element method. A Heaviside function is used to capture the jump in the
displacement and an enriched shear flexible 4-noded quadrilateral element is
used for the spatial discretization. The formulation takes into account the
transverse shear deformation and accounts for the lamina material properties at
elevated moisture concentrations and temperature. The influence of the plate
geometry, the geometry of the cutout, the moisture concentration, the thermal
gradient and the boundary conditions on the free flexural vibration is
numerically studied.
