ANALYSIS OF WAVE-PROPAGATION IN THICK-SECTION COMPOSITE LAMINATES USING EFFECTIVE MODULI

Effective moduli for thick-section composite laminates were used to re present the laminates as homogeneous but anisotropic media. Harmonic w aves propagating parallel and normal to the layering were considered. Dispersion curves for various stacking sequences were obtained from th e effective modulus method and from exact layer-by-layer analysis. The results indicate that for long wavelengths, the effective modulus sol utions converge to the exact solutions. As the wavelength decreases, t he effective modulus solution starts to deviate from the exact solutio n. The amount of deviation depends on the mode of wave motion, stackin g sequence, and number of plies in the laminate. The effective modulus model together with a global-local method were also used to study the transient response in a layered cylinder subjected to blast loading. The stress fields obtained from the effective modulus model agreed ver y well with those obtained using layer-by-layer analysis. Copyright (C ) 1996 Elsevier Science Limited