Stress and fracture analysis in delaminated orthotropic composite plates using third-order shear deformation theory

The third-order shear deformable plate theory is applied in this work to calculate the stresses and energy release rates in delaminated orthotropic composite plates with straight crack front. The delaminated parts are modeled by the general third-order plate theory, while a double-plate model with interface constraint is developed for the uncracked portion of the plate. The governing equations of the uncracked part are formulated by considering the equilibrium and the displacement continuity along the interface. As an example, a simply-supported delaminated orthotropic plate subjected to a point force is solved adopting Lévy plate formulation and the state-space approach. The mode-II and mode-III energy release rate distributions along the crack front were calculated by the J-integral. To verify the analytical results the 3D finite element model of the plate was constructed and the energy release rates were calculated by the virtual crack-closure technique. A previous second-order plate theory solution was also utilized in the course of the comparison. The results indicate a good agreement between analysis and numerical computation and that third-order theory is better in some cases than the second-order approximation.