Due to special characteristics of advanced reinforced composite materi
als, they require extensive experimental evaluation. Thus, it is extre
mely useful to use available experimental data of specific structural
systems to predict the behavior of all similar systems. This study des
cribes the establishment of similarity conditions between two structur
al systems. Similarity conditions provide the relationship between a s
cale model and its prototype, and can be used to predict the behavior
of the prototype by extrapolating the experimental data of the corresp
onding small scale model. Since satisfying all the similarity conditio
ns simultaneously is in most cases impractical, distorted models with
partial similarity (with at least one similarity condition relaxed) ar
e employed. Establishing similarity conditions, based on direct use of
governing equations, is discussed and the possibility of designing di
storted models is investigated. The method is demonstrated through ana
lysis of the cylindrical bending of othotropic laminated beamplates su
bjected to transverse loads and buckling of symmetric laminated cross-
ply rectangular plates subjected to uniaxial compression.