Progressive Failure Analysis of Laminated Composite Plate by Using Higher Order Shear Deformation Theory

A finite element analysis procedure is developed for progressive failure analysis of laminated composite plates under in plane tensile loading. A finite element model is based on higher order shear deformation theory (HSDT) with seven degrees of freedom. The degradation technique used for degradation of material properties of a failed ply is a ply discounting approach. The mode dependant Hashin and Lee failure criterion is used for the progressive failure analysis. The results of first ply failure load and last ply failure load are obtained for different stacking sequence of composite plate. The results shows that a considerable amount of strength remains un utilized in composite laminates after first ply failure of laminates.