Elastic Behavior of Woven Fabric Composites: II—Laminate Analysis

Two-dimensional models are presented for the elastic analysis of the plain weave fabric laminates. A methodology to generate the laminate configuration from the lamina configuration is given. The effect of lamina configuration and their relative posi tions with respect to each other on the in-plane elastic constants of the woven fabric lami nates is studied. A laminate configuration with optimum shifts gives higher elastic proper ties compared to the other configurations. A comparison between in-plane elastic moduli of the unidirectionally laminated symmetric cross-ply laminates and plain weave fabric laminates is made. The in-plane elastic moduli of plain weave fabric laminates predicted by the models are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results.