Design and analysis of angle-ply arrangement on fracture properties of FRP composite structure under thermo-mechanical loading conditions subjected to central circle cut-out

The fibre reinforced composites are widely used materials in transportation sector. The parameters like the fibre orientation angle, laminate thickness, fibre volume fraction influence the properties of the composite structure. To reduce the experimentation cost, mathematical modelling is used to obtain optimal parameters. In the present study, the effect of the fibre orientation angle on the stresses in a composite plate with a circular cutout and a virtual crack under the thermo-mechanical loads. To impart thermo-mechanical load, a constant pressure of 5 MPa and four different temperatures (30–180 °C) are used simultaneously. The crack propagation in the laminate is quantified by the stresses at the particular location. The normal stress (σzz)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\sigma }_{zz})$$\end{document} and shear stresses (τxz,τyz)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\tau }_{xz} , {\tau }_{yz})$$\end{document} were calculated and reported as a function of the location on the circular cut-out. The location with the higher stresses has higher probability of crack formation. It is observed that the increase in the temperature increases the stress in the composite laminate. The change in angle-ply orientation has significant effect on the optimum fibre orientation angle.