The Kirchhoff and Mindlin plate theories are applied in this study to calculate the stresses and the energy release rates in delaminated orthotropic composite plates. A novel double-plate system is developed with the imposition of the kinematic continuity constraints in the interface plane. The governing equations of the system were derived in both cases. As a demonstrative example a simply-supported plate subjected to a point force was analyzed using Lévy plate formulation and the problem was solved by a state-space model. The distribution of the stress resultants and the interlaminar stresses in the uncracked part were also determined. Moreover, the distributions of the mode-II and mode-III energy release rates along the crack front were calculated by the J-integral. The 3D finite element model of the plate was created providing reference data for the analytical model. The results show that the displacement and stress fields obtained from the Kirchhoff and Mindlin theories are quite similar, but in the case of the energy release rates, transverse shear effect is necessary to consider to obtain reasonably good agreement between the analytical and numerical results.
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