Effect of Thickness Ratio on Nonlinear Static behaviour of Skew Bidirectional FRP Laminates with Circular Cutout

One of the factors influencing the stiffness and stresses of the plate is thickness ratio of the laminated composite plate. The present work focused on evaluation of the effect of thickness ratio ‘S’ on geometric nonlinear behavior of a four layered symmetric (+45°/45°/45°/+45°) skew bidirectional FRP laminated composite plate with a circular cut out at the geometric centre of the plate. The problem is modeled in ANSYS software and executed for satisfactory results by performing convergence of the finite element mesh. Results are obtained for a uniform transverse pressure of 0.5MPa for seven different thickness ratios of the plate. The limitations of the linear assumption and the need for nonlinear analysis are stated.