The Laminate Analogy for 2 and 3 Dimensional Composite Materials

Abstract

A previously developed laminate analogy for predicting the elastic stiffness and thermal expansion properties of a randomly oriented short fiber composite is extended to include a large class of fiber reinforced composites possessing very complex geometry. In particular, the stiffness and thermal expansion coefficients of short fiber com posites having biased filaments, misaligned filaments, and variable fiber aspect ratios are determined from a laminate analogy. In addition, the laminate analogy is extended to 2 and 3 dimensional woven fabric composites. Theoretical results for the short fiber com posites show excellent agreement with experimental results, while theoretical results for the woven fabric composites are shown to be qualitatively correct.