Strength Neede ed in More e Than On ne Directi ion

Consider ring its ligh ht weight, a lamina (p ply) of fibe er reinforced d composite e is remark kably strong along the fiber direction. However, the same la amina is con nsiderably w weaker in al ll offfiber directions. To address th his issue an nd withstan nd loadings from multi iple angles, , one would us se a laminat tion constructed by a number of la minae orien nted at diffe erent directio ons.

Basic Assumptio A ons of Cla assical La amination n Theory

Similar to t the Euler-Bernoulli beam theory and the plate theory, the clas ssical lamination theory is s only valid d for thin laminates (span a an nd b > 10thinckness s t) with s small displace ement w in n the transv verse direct tion (w << t). It share es the same classical plate theory assumptions: Kirchho off Hypothe esis 1. Normals s remain str raight (they y do not ben nd) 2. Normals s remain un nstretched (they keep t the same len ngth) 3. Normals s remain no ormal (they always mak ke a right an ngle to the neutral plane) In addition, perfect t bonding between b lay yers is assum med. Perfe ect Bondin ng 1. The bon nding itself is infinitesim mally small ( (there is no o flaw or gap p between layers). 2. The bon nding is non n-shear-defo ormable (no o lamina can n slip relativ ve to another r). 3. The stre ength of bon nding is as strong s as it needs to be e (the lamin nate acts as a single lam mina with sp pecial integr rated proper rties).

Classic cal Lamination The eory From m Classica al Plate Th heory

The clas ssical lamina ation theory y is almost t identical t to the class sical plate t theory, the only differenc ce is in the material properties (s stress-strain n relations). . The classi ical plate th heory usually assumes a tha at the mate erial is isotr ropic, while a fiber rein nforced com mposite laminate with mul ltiple layers (plies) may y have more e complicate ed stress-strain relation ns. The four cornersto ones of the e lamination n theory a are the kin nematic, constitutive, force resultant t, and equili ibrium equa ations. The outcome o of each of these segment ts is summa arized as follow ws:

Kinematics:

where u0, v0, and w0 are the dis splacements s of the mid ddle plane in n the x, y, and z directions, respectiv vely. Please e note that some litera ature may define kxy as the e total skew w curvature which elimi inates the f factor of 2. Also note that Kirchhoff's K a assumptions s are introd duced to sim mplify the displac cement field ds. titutive: Const

alternative ely,

where the subscript k indicates th he kth layer counting fr rom the top of the lamina ate. ultants: Resu

Again, the e subscript k indicate es the kth l layer from the top of f the laminate and a N is the e total numb ber of layers s. Note that t perfect bon nding is assumed d so we can n move the i integration inside the s summation.

Equilibrium:

Formin ng Stiffne ess Matric ces: A, B, and D

The plat te is assumed to be constructed by a homo ogeneous bu ut not nece essarily isot tropic material and subje ected to both transve erse and in-plan load dings. Also, the Cartesian coordinate system is used. The T goal is to develop p the relat ions between the ext ternal loadings and the di isplacement ts. However r, the relati ions betwee en the resu ultants (forc ces N and mom ments M) and a the str rains (strain ns practice. Replace the stresse es in the force and mo oment resul ltants with strains via the constit tutive equation ns, we have

and c curvatures k) are of m most intere est in

By apply ying the sum mmation and integratio on operation ns to their r respective c components s, the force and d moment resultants r ca an be furthe er simplified d to

Combine e the above equations we w can write e:

where A is called th he extension nal stiffness, B is called d the couplin ng stiffness, and D is c called ding stiffnes ss of the lam minate. The component ts of these three stiffne ess matrices are the bend defined as a follows:

where tk is the thic ckness of th he kth layer and

is t the distance e from the mid-plan to o the

centroid of the kth la ayer. Formin ng these thr ree stiffness s matrices A, B, and D, is probably the most cru ucial step in the analysis of compos site laminate es. In some situations, strains expressed in terms of re esultants ar re more han ndy. The st trainresultant t relations can c be derived with app propriate ma atrix operations:

where

at A, B, D and A*, B*, D* are all sy ymmetric m matrices. Am mong them, A, B, and D are Note tha considered universa al notations in the field of composi ites, i.e., the same not tations appe ear in almost all literature of composit te materials s. A*, B*, an nd D*, on th he other han nd, are not.