Curved laminate analysis

This paper is devoted to the development of the equations which describe the elastic response of a curved laminate subjected to in-plane loads and bending moments. Similar to the classic $6{\times}6$ ABD matrix constitutive relation of a flat laminate, a new $6{\times}6$ matrix constitutive relation between force resultants, moment resultants, mid-plane strains and deformed curvatures for a curved laminate is formulated. This curved lamination theory will provide the fundamental basis for the analyses of curved laminated structures. The stress predictions by the present curved lamination theory are compared to those by the curved laminate analysis that neglected the nonlinear terms in the derivation of the constitutive relation. The results show that the curved laminate analysis that neglected the nonlinear terms cannot reflect the effect of curvature and can no longer predict the stresses accurately as the curvature becomes noticeable. In this paper, a curved lamination theory that retains the nonlinear terms and, therefore, accounts for the effect of the non-flat geometry of the structure will be developed.