Fracture mechanics of orthotropic laminated plates. I: The through crack problem. II: The plane strain crack problem for two bonded orthotropic layers. III: The surface crack problem (Q1309504)

A laminated plate which consists of an arbitrary number of dissimilar orthotropic layers under membrane and bending loads is considered. The plate is assumed to have a through crack. The problem is formulated by using Mindlin's first order shear deformation theory and a higher order theory due to Reddy. The main objective of the study is to investigate the influence of the material orthotropy, various stiffness ratios, and relative dimensions concerning the crack size and laminae thicknesses on the stress intensity factors.