Elastic-plastic and residual stresses in symmetric thermoplastic laminated plates under a linear thermal loading

Thermal stresses are of great importance in composite structures. In this study, a thermal elastic-plastic stress analysis is carried out in (0°/90°)2, (30°/−30°)2, (45°/−45°)2, (60°/−60°)2 symmetric thermoplastic laminated plates. Temperature changes linearly along the cross sections of the plates. It is zero and To at the upper and lower surfaces, respectively. The distribution of the residual stress components of σx and σy are illustrated along the cross sections of the laminated plates for different thermal loading. Elastic-plastic and residual stress components are given in the tables. The strength of the laminated plates may be increased by using residual stress. Tsai–Hill Criterion is used as a yield criterion. Differential equations are solved numerically with a sufficiently large number of integration intervals of the temperature. The composite material is assumed to be linear strain hardening.