Progressive failure and ultimate collapse of laminated composite plates in bending

A method is presented to study the non-linear behaviour, first ply failure and ultimate collapse of laminated composite plates with clamped edges, subjected to transverse pressure. Several failure criteria, including Hashin's and Tsai-Wu's, are used to predict the failure mechanisms. The effect of aspect ratio on the strength and stiffness of laminated composite plates is studied. Non-linear strain-displacement relations that contain large strain and large rotation are used in the analysis. The general purpose finite element program ABAQUS is used for the analysis. The stiffness reduction is carried out at the Gauss points of the finite element mesh depending on the mode of failure. The predictions of the model correlate well with experimental data for different aspect ratios. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.