Laminated beams subjected to transverse load.

The applications of advanced composite materials in the field of laminated structures are widely studied by researchers with aid of the bending plate theory and the multilayer theory. However, little effort has been made to perform a simple elastic analysis which might lead to a better understanding of the behaviour of stresses; such as transverse and longitudinal interfacial shear stresses in laminated beams subjected to a variety of transverse loading configurations. In addition, certain parameters, such as behaviour of stresses and shear load-transfer mechanism are extremely desirable, since these parameters have a large influence on the structural integrity of the composites. A simple analysis based on the Bernoulli-Eular theory has been developed for determining the behaviour of stresses in the laminated beams subjected to bending loads. This analysis has a great advantage of being able to provide both simple and comprehensive solutions for practical components. A programme of experimental work using the two-dimensional photo-elastic method has been carried out on single-layer and triple-layer laminated composite beams. In order to validate the developed theory, and also to discuss the significance of these results in interpreting the interlaminar shear, and the bending strength of composite materials, these models were subjected to a four-point and three-point loading conditions having the same geometry as it was assumed in the theoretical analysis. The experimental results gave rise to a longitudinal interfacial shear stress and parabolic shear stress distributions in the physical model, and hence validated the present simple elastic solution