Bending-extensional coupling in laminated plates under transverse loading

Anti-symmetric cross-ply and angle-ply laminates under transverse loading are analyzed. By expanding the load in a double Fourier series a closed form solution is obtained for special types of simple-supported boundary conditions. Results show that coupling can increase maxi-mum deflections by as much as 300 % compared to analogous ortho-tropic plates in which coupling is neglected. The severity of the coupling effect depends on the degree of anisotropy of the individual layers, and the total number of plies in the composit