MECHANICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ANISOTROPIC PLATES - EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

An experimental method based on performing two different flexural test s on circular anisotropic laminated plates is described. It allows the accurate evaluation of the six independent elastic constants describi ng the flexural elastic law of the tested plate from heterogeneous str ain fields. The theory is developed by means of relationships between the unknow elastic constants to be determined, the applied load, the m ean value of the strain on the top surface of the plate and the geomet ric characteristics of the plate. The strain is obtained through a num erical treatment of the slope contours on the whole plate surface. The se contours are provided by a moire optical device. The circular shape of the plate allows the rotation of the plate in the mechanical set-u p and leads to redundant data obtained in different frames. They are t hen optimized using a suitable method based on their tensorial nature. The measured compliances and the scatter of the experimental results are shown to be very satisfactory and in agreement with theoretical ex pectations.