Analysis of the Transverse Cracking of Cross-Ply Laminates: A Generalized Approach

Abstract

A generalized approach has been developed to evaluate the two-dimensional stress distribution in cracked cross-ply laminates. Comparisons between finite element analysis and analytical models show that a complete parabolic analysis extended to 0° and 90° layers yields a fairly good approximation of the strain and stress distributions in the case of [0°/90°] s, with equal thicknesses of 0° and 90° layers. However a deviation is observed in the case of thick 0° layers. The analysis presented in this paper keeps a parabolic variation of the longitudinal displacement across the thickness of 90° layer, and generalizes the longitudinal displacement distribution across the thickness of 0° layers by taking an indeterminate distribution. The development of this analysis allows us to obtain the general form of the stress distributions in 0° and 90° layers. Finally, it is proposed a particular form of the variation of the longitudinal displacement across the thickness of 0° plies which yields a good agreement of the stress distributions with finite element analysis for the different stacking sequences investigated.