ABSTRACT
Laminated composites are typically constructed from orthotropic plies (laminae) containing unidirectional fibers or woven fabric. Generally, in a macroscopic sense, the lamina is assumed to behave as a homogeneous orthotropic material. The constitutive relation for a linear elastic orthotropic material in the material coordinate system (Figure 2.1) is [1-6]
(2.1)
where the stress components (
σ
,
τ
) are defined in Figure 2.1 and the S
are elements of the compliance matrix. The engineering strain components (
ε
,
γ
) are defined as implied in Figure 2.2.
