A design of laminated composite plates using graded orthotropic fiber-reinforced composite plies

A new lamination scheme is proposed through the design of a graded orthotropic fiber-reinforced composite ply for achieving continuous variations of material properties along the thickness direction of laminated composite plates. First, a micro-structure of graded unidirectional fiber-reinforced composite ply is designed and its effective graded elastic properties are estimated using finite element procedure. Next, the new lamination scheme is demonstrated through the conversion of a conventional laminated composite plate (CLCP) into a conventional-graded laminated composite plate (CGLCP) utilizing presently designed graded orthotropic composite ply. The suitability of this conversion/proposed lamination scheme is substantiated through the bending analysis of both the plates (CLCP and CGLCP).