Three-dimensional stress analysis of rotating composite beams due to material discontinuities

Material discontinuity could cause in-plane stress gradients that it arises out-of-plane stresses in regions of sudden transition of material properties. A layerwise laminated plate theory is adapted to laminated beams to analyze analytically the three-dimensional stress field at material discontinuities in rotating composite beams. Equations of motion are obtained by using Hamilton’s principle. The beam is divided into two regions with different layups which are joined together to model the region of material discontinuity. The predicted stress distributions at the ply interfaces are shown to be in good agreement with comparative three-dimensional finite element analysis.