Interlaminar and boundary layer stress analysis in thin corss-ply composite cylinders subjected to thermal loading for various boundary conditions

Interlaminar thermal stresses and boundary layer effect in thin laminated composite cylinders which are subjected to temperature change are studied. To this aim a laminated cross-ply composite cylinder with finite length which is subjected to thermal loading is modeled. The displacement based layerwise theory (LWT) is used for modeling the response of the composite cylinder in the thermal loading conditions. Using an appropriate displacement field and employing the LWT, the governing equations of the cylinder and the appropriate boundary conditions in the edges of the cylinder are derived with the principle of minimum total potential energy. An analytical solution is introduced for the governing equations and the solution is obtained for various boundary conditions. The numerical results are validated by comparison of the results of LWT with the predictions of the finite element method (FEM) and good agreements are seen. It is seen that the presented LW solution is efficient and accurate method for analysis the edge effect and interlaminar stresses in composite cylinders. The interlaminar thermal stresses and in-plane stresses in the Glass/Epoxy composite cylinder which are subjected to thermal loading are investigated for various boundary (edge) conditions. Cylinders with symmetric and asymmetric layer staking and free, simply and clamped boundary conditions are studied in the numerical results.