Prestressed composite laminates featuring interlaminar imperfection

The third-order zigzag displacement model is improved to include inplane displacement jumps across each layer interface of composite laminates to enable interlaminar imperfection to be incorporated. The imperfection is characterized by a linear spring-layer model which includes perfect bonding as a special case. The principle of virtual work is used to derive a boundary value formulation for laminated composite plates initially in a prestress state. Bending, buckling and vibration problems are studied for the case of rectangular cross-ply laminated plates for illustrative purpose.