Effect of Fiber Orientation on Buckling and First-Ply Failures of Cylindrical Shear-Deformable Laminates

Abstract

The effect of fiber orientation is studied on the failure load of a laminated curved panel subjected to uniaxial compression for a combination of simply supported and clamped boundary conditions. The failure modes are specified as buckling and first-ply failure, with the failure load defined as the minimum of these two loads. The panel is taken as a shear-deformable symmetrically laminated angle-ply laminate, and the effect of fiber orientation on the failure load is investigated by considering several laminations consisting of 0, 90, and θ° ply angles and by determining the failure load for different aspect ratios and panel thicknesses. The best ply angles for each stacking sequence are determined to maximize the failure load and the stacking sequence giving the highest failure load. The numerical results are obtained using an eight-noded shell finite element that avoids the parasitic shear or shear locking problem. It is observed that the rotational restraints at the curved edges have a major effect on the failure load.