Accurate determination of interlaminar stresses in general cross-ply laminates

Reddy's layerwise theory is used to investigate analytically the interlaminar stresses near the free edges of general (unsymmetric and symmetric) cross-ply composite laminates with various boundary conditions subjected to mechanical and hygrothermal loadings. Laminates with finite dimensions are considered and full three-dimensional stresses in the interior and the boundary-layer regions are calculated. The results obtained from this theory are compared with those available in the literature. It is found that the theory can predict very accurately the stresses in the interior region and near the free edges of both finite and long laminates.