ABSTRACT
The stress-strain relationship of an anisotropic laminate containing an opening is derived for shear loading. Compact-form solutions are given for composite laminates with some special opening configurations. This chapter discusses the stress analysis, the failure mechanisms and the notched strength of laminated composites containing cracks under shear loading. It demonstrates that the notched strength of these composite laminates can be predicted accurately using the minimum strength model with the same characteristic length for shear and tensile loadings. The two-dimensional stress analysis for shear loading of an infinite anisotropic laminate of symmetrical layup containing a cutout has been analyzed by Lekhnitskii using a complex variable method. Although the stress analysis is derived for an anisotropic plate with several different opening configurations, the experiment was performed for laminates containing cracks only. Moreover, the crack is parallel to the rails of the rail-shear fixture so that the crack boundary is sufficiently far away from the edges of the rails.
