A procedure for designing laminated plates with required stiffness properties. Application to thin quasi-isotropic quasi-homogeneous uncoupled laminates

A calculation method for designing laminated plates with required stiffness properties is presented. The properties to be achieved are characterized b y 12 lamination parameters. An objective function linking the 12 required a nd computed parameters is then minimized with respect to the ply angles to obtain optimal stacking sequences. The problem of designing uncoupled lamin ated plates with concomitant bending and in-plane isotropy is then addresse d as an example. Approximate solutions with 12 plies of equal thickness and more are found. It is verified that they achieve the specified properties with a reasonable accuracy. This number of 12 plies is much less than other exact or approximate results available in the literature.