Dilatation and Through-the-Thickness Poisson's Ratio of Composite Laminates

Abstract

In this paper an investigation of the through-the-thickness Poisson's ratio and the dilatation for a general class of randomly-oriented composite laminate is presented. A simple random statistical analysis has been used to demonstrate that under certain conditions, for instance, a laminate with 40 plies or more, the mean values of the through-the-thickness Poisson's ratio and the dilatation in the randomly-oriented laminate are close to those values evaluated from the analytical formulation. Also, the influence of the various lamina material properties E₂1E₁, E31EI, G₁₂/EI, v₁₂, v₃₁ and v₃₂ on the through-the-thickness Poisson's ratio and the dilatation of the laminate are obtained. The results from this statistical analysis provide a set of general guidelines for designing the through-the-thickness Poisson's ratio and the dilatation of the composite laminates to meet various requirements in engineering applications.