Abstract
Recent years have witnessed an increase in the popularity of thick-section composites in mission-critical components. However, the manufacturing processes of these composites are known to introduce anomalies and imperfections that are difficult to eliminate, such as layer waviness, i.e., local undulations in the layers. Accordingly, there is a demand for more accurate models to study the effects of such imperfections on the be havior of these structures. The present study shows that layer waviness in thick composites may cause a significant increase in interlaminar normal and shear stresses in its vicinity. For a studied case, maximum interlaminar stresses occur for a waviness with a negative amplitude-to-span ratio, i.e., when the plate is stiffer in the direction of the wave. Results also show that these maximum stresses occur close to the foot of the wave.