Variational Asymptotic Model for Thick Pre-stressed Laminated Composite Plates

Abstract

Thick laminated composite plates are prone to residual stresses during curing. Also, the laminated plates are fastened to connecting structure either using bolts or rivets - this induces through-the-thickness normal stress. The normal stress component due to residual stresses and due to clamping are predominant in nature for thick laminated composites and should be accounted. However, in the popular plate models, formulation starts with the premise of plane stress assumption and ignoring through-thethickness normal stress. Hence, a refined plate theory which accounts for throughthe- thickness normal stress has to be developed. The present work focuses on arriving at the transverse constitutive law (analogous to the A, B, D, and G of first order shear deformation theory) for a plate subjected to initial stresses (accounting for all normal stress components, and not restricting to through-the-thickness normal stress compo- nent alone) using the Variational Asymptotic Method (VAM).