Numerical Analysis of Interlaminar Stresses of Angle-ply AS4/PEEK Laminate with a Central Hole

This article addresses the distributions of interlaminar stresses of centrally notched angle-ply AS4/PEEK laminates by finite element method (FEM). The calculation results indicate: interlaminar stress concentration always occurs in the vicinity of free edges (including two free sides and hole edge), which is the so-called free edge effect; when two adjacent plies have the same layup angles, the free edge interlaminar normal stress dominates; when two adjacent plies have the opposite layup angles, interlaminar shear stress dominates. For both conditions, the highest interlaminar stresses generally occur at the hole edge. The results of digital speckle correlation measurement test indicate that the result predicted by FEM is reliable.