A dimensionless analysis of shear modulus and stress distribution for anisotropic materials

Abstract

The effect of various offaxis angles and lamina material properties on the shear modulus and the stress distribution of a circular cutout in an orthotropic composite plate under shear loadings are presented. Based on the generalized Hooke's law, the generalized plane stress condition and the complex variable method, a dimensionless analysis is used to evaluate the influence of various elastic moduli E 1 , E 2 , G 12 and ν 12 on the laminate shear modulus and the stress distribution along the boundary of the circular cutout within the laminate under shear loading. The results obtained from this dimensionless analysis provide a set of general design guidelines for structural laminates with high-precision requirements in engineering applications.