AbstractIn this paper a semi‐analytical approach is developed which enables the computation of the stress field in the vicinity of a transverse crack in symmetric cross‐ply laminated plates subjected to an in‐plane tensile load. Due to the assumption of a plane state of strain, the analytical model can be reduced to a two‐dimensional plate strip. After a discretization of the considered laminate into mathematical layers with respect to the thickness direction, the displacements for the undamaged part are derived by making use of the classical laminate plate theory. To incorporate transverse cracks into the formulation, the closed‐form analytical solution is upgraded by a so‐called ‘local solution’ that incorporates unknown displacement functions, specified in the interfaces of the numerical layers, as well Lagrangian interpolation functions of different order. The governing equations are determined by means of the principle of minimum elastic potential and eventually yield a quadratic eigenvalue problem which requires numerical evaluation. The obtained formulation of the previously defined interface displacements includes unknown ‘weight factors' which have to be characterized by adequate boundary and continuity conditions. Consequently, by solving the resulting linear system of equations, a full‐scale representation of the displacement‐, strain‐ and stress field within the damaged laminate is obtained. The semi‐analytical method is verified by comparison with numerical results of detailed finite element simulations. Using only a fraction of the computational effort, the results of the semi‐analytical approach show comparable accuracy to the finite element method.