Theoretical and finite element investigation of inter-laminar stresses for laminated composite beam

The advantage of material properties and flexibility of choosing material have made composite materials a primary preference for structural and aircraft applications. Unlike isotropic materials, the parametric study and optimization analysis of composite structures is complicated due to high number of parameters involved in designing like material properties, fiber orientation and stacking sequence, besides geometric dimensions. The objective of this study focuses on the development of an analytical method for inter-laminar stress analysis of laminated composite I-beam by extending the applicability of lamination theory usually used at laminate level to composite structure level. Analytical expressions for calculating the properties of laminated beam section such as centroid, axial and bending stiffness have been derived. These properties of section are then used to calculate the stresses of each ply of I-beam at any given level. Further, a finite element model has been created using ANSYS 15.0. The stress results obtained analytically have been found to be in excellent agreement with the results obtained from the finite element analysis. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.