Influence of orientation errors on quasi-homogeneity of composite laminates

This paper presents a study on the effects of layer orientation defects on the property of quasi-homogeneity for composite laminates: a measure of the deviation from quasi-homogeneity, introducing the concept of degree of quasi-homogeneity, is proposed. Complete theoretical developments which lead to exact formulae in the case of a single orientation error on a layer of the laminate are showed and the results of a wide numerical analysis in the case of orientation errors randomly distributed on the stacking sequence are also presented. All the theoretical and numerical calculations are developed thanks to the polar method of representation of fourth order tensors introduced by Verchery.