ON THE TRANSIENT HYGROSCOPIC STRESSES IN LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES

The transient and non-uniform moisture concentration distributions in laminated composite plates give rise to transient and non-uniform stre ss fields which are investigated here. It is shown that heterogeneity and anisotropy of such plates cause, in general, the transient stress distributions to be very different to those in the equilibrium stress distributions. Some stacking sequences exhibit non-negligible transver se stresses in their plies which have to be taken into account in the design of composite structures submitted to a moist environment.