Failure Analysis of Laminated Composite Skew Laminates

Abstract

Failure analysis of laminated composite skew laminates subjected to transverse loads is presented by developing a C0 finite element (FE) model based on higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT). In this theory the transverse shear stresses are taken as zero at the laminate top and bottom. A realistic parabolic variation of transverse shear strains through the laminate thickness is assumed and the use of shear correction factor is avoided. The C0 finite element formulation has been done quite efficiently to overcome the problem of C1 continuity associated with the HSDT. The isoparametric FE used in the present model consists of nine nodes with seven nodal unknowns per node. Five different failure criterions have been used for each problem. Since there is no result available in the literature on the problem of skew laminates subjected to transverse loads based on HSDT, present results are validated with few results available on laminates subjected to transverse loads without skew angle. Many new results are presented on the failure load for skew laminates subjected to transverse loads considering different geometry, boundary conditions, ply orientation and skew angles.