ABSTRACT
Stress and strain concentrations are derived and discussed for anisotropic laminates containing an elliptical opening and tensile loading. The first part of this chapter deals with laminates that do not contain microdamage, while the second part discusses the stress and strain concentrations after microdamage has occurred. In the first part, the strain concentrations of orthotropic composite laminates containing a circular hole and subjected to tensile loading were measured experimentally using strain gages. The chapter discusses both theoretical development and experimental study. The chapter develops a new method for measuring the strain and stress concentrations of laminated composites containing damage through the use of local strain measurements and a sectioning method. The Finite-width correction factors are applied in conjunction with the infinite-plate, and compared with experimental results for orthotropic composite laminates.
