Abstract:
Presented is a prediction of manufactured shapes of rectangular unsymmetric cross-ply laminated composite plates. The warpage of composite plates after high temperature manufacturing process is caused by residual stress, which is stemmed from the mismatch of material properties between layers. To predict manufactured shapes of composite plates, the minimum potential energy principle with 23-term Rayleigh-Ritz approach is used. Conducted is parametric study of the involved independent variables, i.e. aspect ratio, sidelength to thickness ratio, and ply thickness ratio. Analysis is taken geometric nonlinearities into consideration in order to be capable of predicting large deformation and multiple manufactured shapes. Computational results show that the relations between a composite plate's curvatures and its geometric variables can identify shape characteristics and their associated shape number after manufactured. Furthermore, the relationships between the geometries of composite plates at critical value that indicate the increment of shape number from single to multiple shape (locus plot) can be adopted to choose the proper plates's dimensions in composite manufacturing process.