Calculating 3D stresses in layered composite plates and shells

Advanced failure criteria for fiber composites account for all six components of the stress tensor. Plate and shell analysis, however, is sensibly performed by assuming the plane state of stress, which results in global displacements, cross-sectional membrane forces, and bending moments of suitable accuracy. Based on these results, equilibrium conditions can be applied to locally determine the stress components in the transverse direction. Therewith, the transverse shear stresses require first derivatives and transverse normal stresses even second derivatives of the membrane stresses. Higher-order finite elements would be necessary if these stress components are to be determined on the element level. To ease this deficiency, a procedure is proposed based on neglecting the in-plane derivatives of the membrane forces and twisting moments as well as the mixed derivatives of the bending moments. This allows us to reduce the order of differentiation by one. Applicability of this procedure is demonstrated by calculating the transverse shear and normal stresses for layered composite structures of different geometric dimensions and various stacking orders under mechanical as well as thermal loads. Comparison with results from 3D analyses shows excellent accuracy and efficiency of the proposed procedure.