Large Deflection Effects in Antisymmetric Cross-Ply Laminated Strips and Plates

Abstract

A finite difference Dynamic Relaxation (DR) computer program has been developed for large deflection Mindlin plate analysis. The program has been used to obtain solutions for an antisymmetric cross-ply laminated strip subjected to uniform lateral pressure and different edge conditions. It is demonstrated that the bending stiffness of a strip with simply supported in- plane fixed edges is dependent on the direction of the applied load. It is also established that only under simply supported in-plane fixed edge conditions does the flexural stiffness of a strip or a rectangular plate with antisymmetric cross-ply lay-up depend on the direction of the applied pressure. Moreover, it is shown that the directional behaviour is due to the B_{1 1} stiffness which arises in the expressions for the stress resultant, N_x, and the stress couple, M_x. The B_l1 term undergoes a sign change as the direction of bending changes.