Three-dimensional effects of crack closure in laminated composite plates subjected to bending loads
By:  Mehmet Baskaya
Publisher: Naval Postgraduate School; Available from National Technical Information Service
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Monterey, Calif; Springfield, Va
Language: eng
Number of pages: 41
Description: Fracture is one of the dominant failure modes in structures subjected to external loads. Stress and deformation fields around the crack tip are important to understand the crack propagation and arrest. For a plate with a through-the-thickness crack and subjected to a bending load, there is crack closure on the compression side of the crack face. The present study investigates effects of crack closure on the stress and deformation fields on the tension side of the crack face. A three-dimensional finite element analysis is performed for laminated composite plates using both the line and surface crack closure models. For a composite whose longitudinal elastic modulus is much greater than the transverse modulus, line and surface closure models result in higher stresses near the crack tip in comparison to the no-closure solution. Hence, no-closure solutions are nonconservative for the composite. Transverse shear is the major cause for the nonconservative solution.
Notes: Thesis advisor(s): Young W. Kwon.

"June 1994."

Thesis (M.S. in Mechanical Engineering) Naval Postgraduate School, June 1994.

Includes bibliographical references.

Approved for public release; distribution unlimited.

Also available online.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Turkish Navy author.