The development of laminated composite plate theories: a review

This study investigates and reviews approaches to modelling laminated composite plates. It explores theories that have been proposed and developed and assesses their suitability and functionality. The particular focus in this study has been on normal stresses and the through-thickness distributions of transverse shear. These are important for composite plates as stress-induced failures can occur in three different ways. Therefore, it is essential to understand and calculate transverse shear and normal stress through the thickness of the plate accurately. In this study, previous laminated composite plate theories are categorised and reviewed in a general sense, i.e. not problem specific, and the advantages and disadvantages of each model are discussed. This research mainly focuses on how accurate and efficient the models can predict the transverse shear. It starts with displacement-based theories from very basic models such as Classical laminate plate theory to more complicated and higher-order shear deformation theory. Models are furthermore categorised by how the models consider the overall laminate. In this article, the theories are divided into two parts: Single layer theory, where the whole plate is considered as one layer; and Layerwise theory, where each layer is treated separately. The models based on zig-zag and Discrete Theories are then reviewed, and finally the mixed (hybrid) plate theories are studied.