End effects for plane deformations of an elastic anisotropic semi-infinite strip

Abstract

In the linear theory of elasticity, Saint-Venant's principle is used to justify the neglect of edge effects when determining stresses in a body. For isotropic materials, the validity of this is well established. However for anisotropic and composite materials, experimental results have shown that edge effects may persist much farther into the material than for isotropic materials and as a result cannot be neglected. This paper further examines the effects of material anisotropy on the exponential decay rate for stresses in a semi-infinite elastic strip. A linearly elastic semi-infinite strip in a state of plane stress/strain subject to a self-equilibrated end load is considered first for a specially orthotropic material and then for the general anisotropic material. The problem is governed by a fourth-order elliptic partial differential equation with constant coefficients. In the former case, just a single dimensionless material parameter appears, while in the latter, only three dimensionless parameters are required. Energy methods are used to establish lower bounds on the actual stress decay rate. Both analytic and numerical estimates are obtained in terms of the elastic constants of the material and results are shown for several contemporary engineering materials. When compared with the exact stress decay rate computed numerically from the eigenvalues of a fourth-order ordinary differential equation, the results in some cases show a high degree of accuracy. In particular, for strongly orthotropic materials, an asymptotic estimate provides extremely accurate estimates for the decay rate. Results of the type obtained here have several important practical applications. For example, they provide physical insight into the mechanical testing of anisotropic and laminated composite structures (including the off-axis tension test), are useful in assessing the influence of fasteners, joints, etc. on the behavior of composite structures and allow for “tailoring” a material with specific properties to ensure that local stresses attenuate at a desired rate.