A general solution for moments around holes in symmetric laminates

The survey of literature revealed that very few solutions are available for bending of anisotropic plates containing holes. In this paper, a general solution is given for bending of symmetric laminates with holes based on the formulations of Lekhnitskii and Savin that considers any shape of hole in symmetric laminates subjected to remotely applied bending or twisting moments. The results obtained are in good agreement with those in the available literature. Moments around circular, elliptical, triangular, square, rectangular and several irregular shaped holes in cross-ply and angle ply symmetric laminates are obtained. The study on stacking sequence revealed that the moments around the hole will decrease for laminates with large number of ply groups and vice versa. The results also revealed that the magnitude of moments and symmetry of distribution depend on the combined effect of all the parameters, viz., hole geometry, loading, Young’s moduli and Poisson’s ratios of the material and flexural moduli of the laminates.