Stress concentration in composites laminates

Abstract

Stress analysis of orthotropic unidirectional lamina with a centre circular hole under static remote and uniform tensile loading was carried out using the Boundary Element Method. Three different materials used in the modelling are Boron Epoxy, Kevlar-49 Epoxy and HMS Carbon Epoxy. The results for the normalised stress distribution and normalised failure function around the periphery of the hole, the magnitudes and locations of the stress concentration and failure stress were presented. The parametric variations include the size of the hole and the fibre orientation of the lamina. It was found that in composites, the locations of failure may not necessarily coincide with the locations of highest stress concentrations for the cases as in isotropic materials.