ABSTRACT
A variety of structural plate and beam forms are constructed as laminates in which a series of laminae (plies) are stacked and joined to form a single structural unit. The individual laminae may be traditional isotropic materials, or they may be anisotropic materials such as polycrystalline polymers, grainy metals, or composite materials. The emphasis in this chapter is on laminated plates and beams composed of layers of composite materials. Although the notation introduced is for the general case of anisotropic laminae, there is a direct reduction to the case of laminates of isotropic laminae as well as to the case of a laminate with a single anisotropic lamina.
