Stiffness loss of laminated composite plates with distributed damage by the modified local Green’s function method

The modified local Green’s function method (MLGFM) is an integral method which has been applied in many structural and continuum mechanics problems. It uses the finite element method as an auxiliary tool to automatically develop the Green’s functions projections, which correspond to the fundamental solutions of the boundary element method. The same numerical approach techniques of the FEM and the BEM are employed. The advantages of this method are high convergence and precision, especially for tractions and fluxes on the boundaries. The aim of this paper is to show the MLGFM capability to solve laminated composite plates with generalized transverse cracks. The damage effect is considered as an additional load vector and no modification is necessary in the stiffness matrix of the problem. Some examples are presented and the results are compared within the ones chosen from the referred literature.