The Effect of Hole Curvature on Stress Analysis of Unsymmetric Laminates with Triangular Hole

Composite materials are employed in many areas of industry such as aerospace, maritime, etc. High strength, low weight and long life are the reasons for the vast application of these materials. Holes are created in structures in some practical applications while it causes a local stress concentration. Thus careful design should be done in such way to decrease the stress concentration factor. The changing conditions such as layup, fiber angle and cutout curvature in unsymmetric laminated composites causes a change in stress concentration factor. In this paper, the classical Lekhnitskii’s complex potential approach is extended to the unsymmetric laminates with triangular cutout. The analytical solution is confirmed by the numerical method. The results show that the laminate lay-up and cutout curvature have a significant effect on the decrease of stress concentration factor.