Smooth contact of orthotropic laminates by rigid cylinders

Abstract

An analytical method is developed to investigate the contact behavior of an Orthotropic laminate indented by a frictionless cylinder. The method is derived from an exact Green's function, which is based on the anisotropic elasticity theory in the plane strain condition. The contact response of a laminate is characterized into small and large contact stages depending on conformation of the curvatures between the indenter and the laminate in the contact region. The large contact stage occurs after conformation of the curvatures, resulting in less stress concentration in the laminate. It is found that the large contact stage readily develops when large indenters or large laminate span-to-thickness ratios are used. Also, the effect of slight misalignment of an indenter on the contact response of the laminate is significant. On the other hand, a change of laminate stacking sequence has an insignificant effect on the force-indentation relationship.