Composite Mechanics

The second part of this book provides a systematic and thorough introduction to the classical laminate theory based on the theory for plane elasticity elements and classical (shear-rigid) plate elements. The focus is on unidirectional lamina which can be described based on orthotropic constitutive equations and their composition to layered laminates. In addition to the elastic behavior, failure is investigated based on the maximum stress, maximum strain, Tsai-Hill, and the Tsai-Wu criteria. The introduced classical laminate theory provides a simplified stress analysis, and a subsequent failure analysis, without the solution of the system of coupled differential equations for the unknown displacements in the three coordinate directions.