Effect of nonlinear material behavior of laminated composite plates with central rectangular hole subjected to out -of- plane loading

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of nonlinear material behavior on four layered, symmetric; angle-ply laminated composite plate with various fiber-orientation angles; (θ = 30°, 45° and 60°). The plate has a central square-hole and subjected to out-of-plane uniformly distributed load. The effect of Stress Concentration Factor (SCF) resulting from redistribution of in-plane stresses (σx, σy, τxy) around the hole was taken into consideration. Square plates with simply supported boundary conditions were considered in the present study. The analysis was carried out utilizing the ANSYS-computer program. The presence of a central hole was found to concentrate the maximum stresses at the corners of the hole. The nonlinear material behavior was found to redistribute the in-plane stresses more reasonably and smoothly around the hole-perimeter and hence resulting in smaller SCF-values.