Extension of the layer removal technique for the measurement of residual stresses in layered anisotropic cylinders

An extension of the layer removal technique is presented that allows the residual stresses within multilayered anisotropic pipes of any wall thickness to be determined. The method inherently satisfies the self-equilibrium requirement and limits the effects of measurement errors to the region local to the error. The thickness of each layer that is removed need not be uniform and is entirely independent of the thickness of each ply of material. Four example problems are considered. The first three allow results to be compared between the present method and previous work. The fourth problem demonstrates the method on a thick walled anisotropic pipe built up of +45°/-45° plies for which no solution was previously available.