Effect of Lamination Angle and Thickness on Analysis of Composite Plate Under Thermo Mechanical Loading

Abstract

Analytical formulation and solution of stress analysis of composite plate subjected to thermo mechanical loading for various ply orientation and thickness of lamina are studied. The main aim of the paper is to investigate how mechanical and thermo mechanical loading would affect the stress ratio and stress distribution of composite plate. The plate is composed of layers of glass-epoxy composite and the orientation of the layers is assumed to be antisymmetric about the neutral axis of the laminate. The plate is subjected to a combined mechanical loading of tensile force and moment along x direction. The thermo mechanical stress is calculated for different ply orientation and thickness ratio, subjected to a temperature change and mechanical loading. The effect of number of lamina and varying thickness of laminate on the stress ratio and stress distribution is studied. The results in this paper are obtained by use of MATLAB Programming and by Finite element software ANSYS 14. Results obtained from both the methods are compared. Such type of loading finds wide application in aircraft flying at high altitude, marine application, medical devices etc.

Keywords

• ply orientation
• classical lamination theory
• thermo mechanical
• laminate