An accurate de-lamination model for weakly bonded laminates subjected to different sets of edge boundary conditions

This paper extends the applicability of a new method (Soldatos and Watson. Acta Mechanica 1997;123 (3): 163–86; Soldatos and Watson. International Journal of Solids and Structures 1997;34 (22):2857–85; Soldatos and Watson. Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids 1997;2(4):459–89; Shu and Soldatos. International Journal of Solids and Structures 2000;37:4289–307) towards the accurate stress analysis of weakly bonded laminates. The main advantage of the method stems from the fact that it is based on a suitable version of a generalised two-dimensional plate theory that makes use of a small number of degrees of freedom, which is not dependent on the number of the layers involved. Hence, although the method can accommodate with relative ease any set of boundary conditions imposed at the plate edges, it avoids the computationally expensive consequences of corresponding two-dimensional layer-wise plate models or relevant three-dimensional finite element considerations.