Stress singularities in laminated composite wedges

Abstract

This work is concerned with stress singularities at the apex of both symmetric and antisymmetric N-layered composite laminate wedges, using classical lamination theory. The symmetric bending case is governed by a single differential equation, while the antisymmetric case, in which bending and in-plane extension do not occur independently, involves three coupled differential equations. In each case, the governing differential equation(s) have non-constant coefficients which depend on the polar coordinate θ. These do not, in general, have closed-form solutions and numerical techniques must be employed. Finite difference schemes are used here. Results are presented for symmetric and antisymmetric configurations of graphite/epoxy (T-300/5208) angle-ply wedges.