Thermal elastic-plastic stress analysis of antisymmetric aluminium metal-matrix composite laminated plates under constant temperature change through the thickness

In this paper, thermal elastic-plastic stress analysis is carried out on simply supported antisymmetric cross-ply [0degrees/90degrees](2) and angle-ply [30degrees/-30degrees](2), [45degrees/-45degrees](2), [60degrees/-60degrees](2), [15degrees/-15degrees](2), [15degrees/-30degrees](2), [15degrees/-45degrees](2), [15degrees/-60degrees](2) aluminium metal-matrix laminated plates under constant temperature change through the thickness of plates. The plates are composed of four orthotropic layers bonded antisymmetrically. In the solution, a special computer program has been employed. The composite materials are assumed to be perfectly plastic. Tsai-Hill Theory is used as a yield criterion. Plastic and residual stresses are determined in the antisymmetric cross-ply and angle-ply laminated plates for small deformations. The intensity of stress components in the antisymmetric cross-ply laminated plate is higher than in angle-ply laminated plate due to the differences among the stiffnesses of layers. Plastic yielding occurs in all the laminated plates at the same temperature.