Identification of the through-thickness properties of thick laminated tubes using the virtual fields method

This paper presents a method to determine the four through-thickness stiffn esses of thick laminated composites. Only one specimen submitted to one tes t is required. The procedure is based on a suitable use of the principle of virtual work with four independent virtual fields. This leads to a system of four linear equations where the through-thickness stiffnesses are the un knowns. The system is finally inverted to determine the stiffnesses. Finite element simulations have been carried out to validate the approach and to show its stability. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.