INTERLAMINAR STRESS-ANALYSIS FOR LAMINATED PLATES CONTAINING A CURVILINEAR HOLE

This study presents a variational-perturbation approach for the three-dimensional stress analysis around a curvilinear cutout in composite laminates. The solution is based on a composite expansion and assumed stress finite element methods. Stress field solutions for angle-ply and cross-ply laminates containing an elliptical hole have been presented. The effects of the ellipse aspect ratio and the fiber orientation on the interlaminar shear stress magnitude have been investigated. A failure criterion based on the interlaminar distortional energy function has been suggested. According to this criterion, it was found that, for angle-ply laminates containing an elliptical hole, a delamination failure initiation occurs at a point along the perpendicular to the direction of loading.