Analysis of the transverse cracking of cross-ply laminates: a generalized approach

A generalized approach has been developed to evaluate the two-dimensional stress distribution in cracked cross-ply laminates. Comparisons between finite element analysis and analytical models show that a complete parabolic analysis extended to 0 degrees and 90 degrees layers yields a fairly good approximation of the strain and stress distributions iri the case of [0 degrees/90 degrees], with equal thicknesses of 0 degrees and 90 degrees layers. However a deviation is observed in the case of thick 0 degrees layers. The analysis presented in this paper keeps a parabolic variation of the longitudinal displacement across the thickness of 90 degrees layer, and generalizes the longitudinal displacement distribution across the thickness of 0 degrees layers by taking an indeterminate distribution. The development of this analysis allows us to obtain the general form of the stress distributions in 0 degrees and 90 degrees layers. Finally, it is proposed a particular form of the variation of the longitudinal displacement across the thickness of 0 degrees plies which yields a good agreement of the stress distributions with finite element analysis for the different stacking sequences investigated.