Structure and properties of the solution space of general anisotropic laminates

The algebraic structure of the solution space of all types of anisotropic laminates is determined. The full space is shown to be the direct sum of a number of orthogonal eigenspaces, one for each simple or multiple eigenvalue, whose dimension equals the multiplicity. There are eight different types of eigenvalues, which combine to yield eleven distinct types of laminates with peculiar representations of the general solution. All such representations are explicitly obtained, along with the pseudo-metrics based on the binary product of the eigenvectors. This leads to the projection operators in the solution space, spectral sums and intrinsic tensors analogous to the Stroh–Barnett–Lothe tensors in 2-D elasticity. The present theoretical results are obtained by adopting a mixed formulation involving the deflection function and Airy’s stress function, and by using new laminate elasticity matrices different from the conventional stiffness matrices A, B and D. The new formulation also discloses an isomorphism relating each anisotropic laminate to an image laminate, such that every equilibrium solution of the former directly yields an image solution of the latter by interchanging the kinematical and kinetic variables and the in-plane and out-of-plane variables. This implies, in particular, that the classical bending theory of homogeneous plates and symmetric laminates is not a distinct subject, despite its historical development and pedagogical recognition, but is mathematically identical to the plane stress problem of anisotropic elasticity.