Stress intensity factors for internally loaded crack in a composite plate subjected to arbitrary biaxial loading at infinity

Abstract

The stress analysis of infinite anisotropic plate with openings is an interesting field of investigation. An attempt is made here to solve elastostatic problem of infinite laminated composite plate subjected to in-plane loading, with an arbitrarily oriented crack, using Muskhelishvili's complex variable formulation. The crack or part of it is subjected to internal pressure and/or internal shear. The stress intensity factors are obtained by evaluating Schwarz integral, for given boundary conditions. The generalised formulation is coded using MATLAB 6.5 and numerical results are obtained for graphite/epoxy and isotropic material. The plane-stress crack models are prepared in ANSYS for some of the cases and results are compared with the present method. The effect of crack orientation, crack length, loading pattern, fibre orientation and stacking sequence on stress intensity factors is studied.