Analysis of thick skew laminate with elliptical cutout subjected to non-linear temperature distribution: Major axis of ellipse vertical

Materials are put to serious test when they are subjected to elevated temperatures. Estimation of thermal stresses and deformations of fiber reinforced composite plates is more complex owing to material anisotropy. Hence an effort is made to study the thermo elastic behaviour of a cross-ply laminated composite skew plate with elliptical cutout subjected to non-linearly varying temperature loading has been investigated in the present analysis. Major axis of the ellipse vertical has been taken for the present analysis. A three-dimensional heat conduction analysis in fiber reinforced composite laminates has been simulated by finite element method to get realistic temperature in the laminate under different thermal boundary conditions. A finite element method which works on the basis of three-dimensional theory of elasticity is employed to evaluate the stresses and deformations. The results obtained by varying the skew angle and size of the cutout are discussed. The magnitudes of the in-plane stresses due to temperature loading is greatly affected by the skew angle variation at higher d/l ratio and their magnitude is observed to be minimum at higher value of the skew angle. The magnitudes of inter laminar stresses are observed to be minimum at lower d/l ratio. The transverse deflection ‘w’ decreases with increase in skew angle. The solutions of skew structures considered in the present analysis will be useful for the construction of safe and efficient structures like skew bridges and swept wings of aircraft structures.