Laminate properties are calculated in four steps:
1. Calculate the reduced stiffness matrix for each ply in the material coordinate system.
2. Transform each stiffness matrix into the global coordinate system.
3. Calculate the laminate stiffness matrix.
4. Calculate the laminate moduli assuming the laminate is symmetric. Symmetry is not checked by the program.

Stress/strain analysis is preformed by:
1. Calculate the thermal in-plane and bending loads
2. Multiply the total loads (thermal plus mechanical) by the inverse of the laminate stiffness matrix to determine the mid-plane strains and curvatures
3. The stresses in the laminate coordinate system are determined by multiplying the stiffness matrix in the global coordinate system by the mechanical strain.
4. Stresses are transformed into the material coordinate system.
5. Strains are transformed into the material coordinate system.

Matlab

1. Daniel, I.M. and Ishai, O. "Engineering Mechanics of Composite Materials." 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, (2006), New York, New York. 2. Hyer, M. W. "Stress Analysis of Fiber-Reinforced Composite Materials." McGraw-Hill, (1998), New York, New York. 3. Voyiadjis, G. and Kattan, P. "Mechanics of Composite Materials with MATLAB" Springer, (2005), The Netherlands. 4. Sun, C. T. "Mechanics of Composite Materials and Laminates: Lecture Notes for A&AE 555" C. T. Sun (2008), West Lafayette, Indiana.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Andrew Ritchey (2010), "Composite Laminate Analysis," https://nanohub.org/resources/complam. (DOI: 10.4231/D3QV3C37P).

  BibTex | EndNote

1. CLPT
2. Composite Analysis
3. Laminate Theory
4. open source tool