Elastic-plastic stress analysis in a unidirectionally reinforced composite cantilever beam loaded by a bending moment

In this study, an elastic-plastic stress analysis is carried out on a steel fiber thermoplastic composite cantilever beam loaded by a bending moment at the free end. The composite beam is reinforced unidirectionally at 0, 30, 45, 60 and 90degrees orientation angles. An analytical solution satisfying both the governing differential equation and the boundary conditions for the two-dimensional stress case is determined. The solution is carried out under the assumption of the Bernoulli-Navier hypotheses. It is found that the intensity of the residual stress component of sigma(x) is maximum at the upper and lower surfaces or at the boundary of the elastic and plastic regions. The composite material is assumed to be hardening linearly. The Tsai-Hill theory is used as the yield criterion.