Synopsis

Calculates the laminate response to an applied set of loads and strains. From the computed laminate strain, the calculator can also extract the layer stresses and strain, in either the layer or laminate coordinate systems. The calculator is does not handle bending, and therefore the laminate is forced to be symmetric (only the lower half is entered and symmetry is applied, thus doubling the thickness). Also, note that thermal stresses are not included in the layer stress calculation.

Input

Enter the layer material properties as a list {Ex, Ey, Gxy, nuxy}:

Enter a stacking sequence for the upper half of a symmetric laminate {theta1, theta2, ...}:
Help on advanced stack entry

Enter 3 known laminate loads or strains. Leave unknown quantities blank. For an orthropic laminate, two of the unknowns should be the 1 and 2 direction loads or strains, and the third unknown must be either shear load or strain

N1	Epsilon 1
N2	Epsilon 2
N6	Epsilon 6

Tabulate layer stress in layer coordinates

Tabulate layer stress in laminate coordinate system

Tabulate layer strains in layer coordinate system

Results

Laminate Loads and Strains

Load Intensity

Strain

Usage Notes

• When moving from page to page, a refresh may have to be used to update input data that was entered on a previous page.
• If you see "Null" in the output, this usually means that the solver that completes the laminate load and strain table was not able to find a solution. This can be cause the wrong number of known quantities was entered (there must be exactly 3 numeric entries), or the shear terms are decoupled from the 1 and 2 strains, and there are two shear unknowns.
• Because bending is not involved, stacking sequence is not important. All of the layers with the same angle will have the same stress or strain. To avoid p printing load lists of layers, an alternative input would be {0//plyThickness[h0], 90//plyThickness[h90],..ect}, where h0 is half the total thickness of 0 degree layers, and h90 is half the total thickness of 90 degree layers. Use the half thickness because the symmetry assumption is imposed.

Page History Notes

• Added ability to transfer input data from one page to another (6/5/2002)
• Initially placed online Dec. 10, 2001
• Known issues or bugs
  • None

Copyright Materials Sciences Corporation, 2001