2003 journal article

Micro-stress prediction in composite laminates with high stress gradients

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOLIDS AND STRUCTURES, 40(9), 2215–2248.

By: P. Hutapea n, F. Yuan n & N. Pagano*

co-author countries: United States of America 🇺🇸
author keywords: laminates; stress; micro-polar
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

The objective of this research is to develop a macroscopic theory, which can provide the connection between macro-mechanics and micro-mechanics in characterizing the micro-stress of composite laminates in regions of high macroscopic stress gradients. The micro-polar theory, a class of higher-order elasticity theory, of composite laminate mechanics is implemented in a well-known Pipes–Pagano free edge boundary problem. The micro-polar homogenization method to determine the micro-polar anisotropic effective elastic moduli is presented. A displacement-based finite element method based on micro-polar theory in anisotropic solids is developed in analyzing composite laminates. The effects of fiber volume fraction and cell size on the normal stress along the artificial interface resulting from ply homogenization of the composite laminate are also investigated. The stress response based on micro-polar theory is compared with those deduced from the micro-mechanics and classical elasticity theory. Special attention of the investigation focuses on the stress fields near the free edge where the high macro-stress gradient occurs. The normal stresses along the artificial interface and especially, the micro-stress along the fiber/matrix interface on the critical cell near the free edge where the high macro-stress gradient detected are the focus of this investigation. These micro-stresses are expected to dominate the failure initiation process in composite laminate. A micro-stress recovery scheme based on micro-polar analysis for the prediction of interface micro-stresses in the critical cell near the free edge is found to be in very good agreement with “exact” micro-stress solutions. It is demonstrated that the micro-polar theory is able to capture the micro-stress accurately from the homogenized solutions.