Volume 18, Issue 5, 2009

INFLUENCE OF PLY SEQUENCE ON THE ELASTIC PROPERTIES OF LAMINATED COMPOSITES

A.M. Amaro*, F.V. Antunes and A. Ramalho

CEMUC – Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Rua Luís Reis Santos, 3030-788 Coimbra, Portugal

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed, E-mail: ana.amaro@dem.uc.pt

Received 17 July 2009; accepted 29 October 2009

ABSTRACT
Composite materials are mostly submitted to dynamic loads, because of their excellent specific strength and stiffness, therefore the resonant technique is adequate for the determination of stiffness properties. Three plates of similar carbon-epoxy composites with distinct fibre orientations were studied with this technique. The effect of stacking sequence on the rigidity of laminated composites was investigated A significant influence of this material parameter on in-plane elastic properties was found, allowing optimization of stiffness for a particular application.

Keywords: Composite materials; Elastic constants; Finite element method; Resonance