RESONANT FAILURE ANALYSIS OF GENERAL COMPOSITE LAMINATES BY USING A MIXED FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD

A three-dimensional mixed finite element formulation is developed for the dynamic failure analysis of general composite laminates under arbitrary edge conditions. The stresses obtained satisfy both the traction reciprocity at inter-element boundaries and the dynamic equilibrium equations of the composite laminate, and the use of shear correction factors is not necessary. Based on an interactive failure criterion, the distribution of mode stresses is demonstrated for the entire region of the composite laminate to predict most possible failure locations at various resonant states. For dynamic safety design, those potential failure regions can be shifted in advance to a place which is not critical. Some numerical examples are carried out to show the validity and applicability of this work. © 1991.