A new postprocessing method for laminated composites of general lamination configurations

Abstract

A new postprocessing method is developed for the deformation and stress recovery of laminated plates of general layup configurations. After obtaining first-order shear deformation plate solutions, deformations and stresses are recovered by utilizing displacement field of higher-order plate theory. The previous developed postprocess method for symmetric cross-ply layup is extended for various layup configurations. For the general layup configurations, not only shear angles but also reference in-plane displacement matchings are needed between higher-order theory and first-order shear deformation theory. Additionally, in-plane equilibrium equations of higher-order shear deformation theory are utilized to satisfy the transverse shear free conditions at the top and bottom surface of the laminates. The basic framework of the postprocess method is preserved. To treat general lamination configurations, the reference plane of the in-plane displacement of an efficient higher-order theory is defined at the bottom surface. Numerous examples demonstrate the accuracy and simplicity of the present method for various layup configurations including anti-symmetric cross-ply and angle-ply layups.