Transverse stress determination of composite plates

Analysis of transverse stresses at layer interfaces in a composite laminate has always been a challenging task. Composite structures possess highly irregular material properties at layer interfaces, which cause high shear stresses. Classical Plate Theory and First Order Shear Deformation Theory (FSDT) use post computing to calculate transverse stresses. This paper presents Reissner Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT) based finite element model to carry out layer-wise analysis of composite laminates. Selective integration scheme has been used. The formulation has been validated by solving numerical examples and comparing the results with those published in the literature.