Experimental and theoretical bending deflections of laminated plates

Abstract

Rectangular plates made from laminated orthotropic layers are analysed by the finite-element displacement method for small bending deflections. The results of experiments on plastic plates reinforced with carbon fibres are compared with the finite-element analysis which neglects coupling between bending and stretching. It is shown that the theory is adequate for plates in which the coupling effect is not present, but underestimates the deflections for plates which contain the coupling terms.