Orthotropic laminates

R. L. Foye and D. J. Baker, Design of Orthotropic Laminates, AIAA/ASME 11th Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, Denver, Colorado, 22-24 April 1970 (presentation only — no paper). 

For plate problems, whether the specially orthotropic laminate has a single layer or multiple layers is essentially immaterial the laminate need only be characterized by 0 2, D22. and Dgg in Equation (5.2). That is, because there is no bending-extension coupling, the force-strain relations, Equation (5.1), are not used in plate analysis for transverse loading causing only bending. However, note that force-strain relations are needed in shell analysis because of the differences between deformation characteristics of plates as opposed to shells. 

Often, because specially orthotropic laminates are virtually as easy to analyze as isotropic plates, other laminates are regarded as, or approximated with, specially orthotropic laminates. This approximation will be studied by comparison of results for each type of laminate with and without the various stiffnesses that distinguish it from a specially orthotropic laminate. Specifically, the importance of the bend-twist coupling terms D,g and D26 will be examined for symmetric angle-ply laminates. Then, bending-extension coupling will be analj ed for antisym-... 

A specially orthotropic laminate has either a single layer of a specially orthotropic material or multiple specially orthotropic layers that are symmetrically arranged about the laminate middle surface. In both cases, the laminate stiffnesses consist solely of A, A 2> 22> 66> 11> D 2, D22, and Dgg. That is, neither shear-extension or bend-twist coupling nor bending-extension coupling exists. Thus, for plate problems, the transverse deflections are described by only one differential equation of equilibrium ... 

Symmetric angle-ply laminates were described in Section 4.3.2 and found to be characterized by a full matrix of extensional stiffnesses as well as bending stiffnesses (but of course no bending-extension coupling stiffnesses because of middle-surface symmetry). The new facet of this type of laminate as opposed to specially orthotropic laminates is the appearance of the bend-twist coupling stiffnesses D. g and D2g (the shear-extension coupling stiffnesses A. g and A2g do not affect the transverse deflection w when the laminate is symmetric). The governing differential equation of equilibrium is... 

Note the presence of the bend-twist coupling stiffnesses in the boundary conditions as well as in the differential et uation. As with the specially orthotropic laminated plate, the simply supported edge boundary condition cannot be further distinguished by the character of the in-plane boundary conditions on u and v because the latter do not appear in any plate problem for a symmetric laminate. 

The solution to the governing differential equation, Equation (5.32), is not as simple as for specially orthotropic laminated plates because of the presence of D. g and D2g. The Fourier expansion of the deflection w. Equation (5.29), is an example of separation of variables. However, because of the terms involving D.,g and D2g, the expansion does not satisfy the governing differential equation because the variables are not separable. Moreover, the deflection expansion also does not satisfy the boundary conditions. Equation (5.33), again because of the terms involving D. g and D2g. 

Thus, the error from ignoring the bend-twist coupiing terms is about 24%, certainly not a negligible error. Hence, the specially orthotropic laminated plate is an unacceptable approximation to a symmetric angle-ply laminated plate. Recognize, however, that Ashton s Rayleigh-Ritz results are also approximate because only a finite number of terms were used in the deflection approximation. Thus, a comparison of his results with an exact solution would lend more confidence to the rejection of the specially orthotropic laminated plate approximation. 

Antisymmetric cross-ply laminates were found in Section 4.3.3 to have extensional stiffnesses A i, A., 2, A22 = Aj, and Aeei bending-extension coupling stiffnesses and 822 =-Bn and bending stiffnesses Di2. D22 = Dn. and Dge. The new terms here in comparison to a specially orthotropic laminate are and 822- Because of this bending-extension coupling, the three buckling differential equations are coupled ... 

Note that if Bn is zero, then T13 and T23 are also zero, so Equation (5.81) reduces to the specially orthotropic plate solution. Equation (5.65), if D11 =D22- Because Tn, T12, and T22 are functions of both m and n, no simple conclusion can be drawn about the value of n at buckling as could be done for specially orthotropic laminated plates where n was determined to be one. Instead, Equation (5.81) is a complicated function of both m and n. At this point, recall the discussion in Section 3.5.3 about the difference between finding a minimum of a function of discrete variables versus a function of continuous variables. We have already seen that plates buckle with a small number of buckles. Consequently, the lowest buckling load must be found in Equation (5.81) by a searching procedure due to Jones involving integer values of m and n [5-20] and not by equating to zero the first partial derivatives of N with respect to m and n. 

A specially orthotropic laminate has either a single layer of a specially orthotropic material or multiple specially orthotropic layers that are symmetrically arranged about the laminate middle surface. In both... 

We will see that the unsymmetric laminate has more bending stiffness in the y-direction than the all-0°-layer laminate and almost as much bending stiffness in the x-direction. Thus, the center deflection of the unsymmetrically laminated plate should exceed that of the all-0°-layer laminated plate. However, we are already aware that bending-extension coupling increases deflections, so the center deflection of the unsymmetric laminate should exceed that of the orthotropic laminated plate. 

Two simple invariants, U, and U5, were shown in the previous subsubsection to be the basic indicators of average laminate stiffnesses. For isotropic materials, these invariants reduce to U. =Qi. and U5 = Qqq, the extensional stiffness and shear stiffness. Accordingly, Tsai and Pagano suggested the orthotopic invariants U., and U5 be called the isotropic stiffness and isotropic shear rigidity, respectively [7-16 and 7-17]. They observed that these isotropic properties are a realistic measure of the minimum stiffness capability of composite laminates. These isotropic properties can be compared directly to properties of isotropic materials as well as to properties of other orthotropic laminates. Obviously, the comparison criterion is more complex than for isotropic materials because now we have two measures, and U5, instead of the usual isotropic stiffness or E. Comparison of values of U., alone is not fair because of the degrading influence of the usually low values of U5 for composite materials. 

Fig. 6.15, Stress distributions ahead of crack tip in the transverse direction of orthotropic laminate in...

The predictions based on Eq. (6.35) are found to be consistent with the results from finite element analysis. Fig. 6.22, for a carbon fiber-epoxy matrix orthotropic laminate. 

Fig. 6.22. Comparisons of the longitudinal splitting length, Z,p, between analysis and finite element method for graphite fiber-epoxy matrix orthotropic laminates. After Tirosh (1973).

The expressions for the strain energy release rate associated with local delaminations growing from the tips of angle ply matrix cracks in orthotropic laminates loaded in tension are presented. Strain energy release rate and the laminate residual stiffness properties are predicted as functions of matrix crack density and delamination length. 

Figure 4.4 Buckling mode shape when/2 = 0 in Eqn (4.6), for orthotropic laminate with no shear load, simply supported along longitudinal edges.

Table 4.5 Fully orthotropic laminates up to 21 plies thickness with highest CAI threshold stress, using VICONOPT buckling analysis...

Figure 4.13 Threshold stress of fully orthotropic laminates by ply percentage breakdowns. Best designs for each ply count are boxed for clarity.

York CB. Characterization of nonsynunetric forms of fuUy orthotropic laminates. J Aircr 2009 46(4) 1114-25. 

Baker N, Butler R, York CB. Damage tolerance of fully orthotropic laminates in compression. Compos Sci Technol 2012 72 1083-9. 

Quasi-isotropic laminate Specially orthotropic laminate... 

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