The study of tapered laminated composite structures: a review

Following laminated composite plates and beams, tapered laminated structure s, which are formed by dropping off some of the plies at discrete positions over the laminate, have received much attention from researchers because o f their structural tailoring capabilities, damage tolerance, and their pote ntial for creating significant weight savings in engineering applications. A review of recent developments in the analysis of tapered laminated compos ite structures with an emphasis on interlaminar stress analysis, delaminati on analysis and parametric study is presented. A discussion of Various appr oaches to modelling and analysis of interlaminar response of tapered compos ites using finite elements and non-finite elements is given. Displacement-b ased finite elements and hybrid finite elements that are commonly used are also reviewed. A review of various studies on delamination failure mechanis ms as a result of drop-off plies in the tapered composites is given next, w hich mainly encompasses a stress-strength approach and a fracture-mechanics approach. Lastly, a variety of methods that are being used in the parametr ic studies regarding the structural integrity is presented. Overall remarks drawn from the reviewed works are given in the final section of the paper. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.