Analytical and experimental analysis of stress concentration in notched multilayered composites with finite outer boundaries

A solution method for stress concentration problems of fibre- and textile-reinforced multilayered composites with account of the influence of a circular or elliptical cut-out and of the finite outer boundary of a composite plate is presented. The method is based on complex-valued displacement functions and conformal mappings in combination with the boundary collocation and least squares methods. This allows a layer-by-layer calculation of full stress, strain, and displacement fields in a generally multilayered anisotropic plate. To verify the calculation model, extensive experimental studies have been carried out. For all the combinations of multilayered GF/PP plates, laminate lay-ups, and notch and specimen dimensions investigated so far, a very good agreement between the analytical calculations and experimental results is found to exist.