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CHAPTER 3

DESIGN OF HYBRID LAMINATED COMPOSITES

3.1 INTRODUCTION

A laminated composite material consists of several layers, each

comprised of a matrix and fibres. The composite laminate design starts with
the selection of the number of layers and their orientation. Once the number
of layers and layer orientation are selected, a Laminate Stacking Sequence
(LSS) is chosen. An LSS is considered heterogeneous when there is
preferential stacking of specific layer orientation in different locations
through the thickness of the laminate (Schmit & Farshi 1977). Thick
laminates with heterogeneous LSS are created by clumping layers of similar
orientation. An LSS is said to be homogeneous when layer orientations are
evenly distributed through the laminate thickness. The ability to generate a
homogeneous LSS depends on the number of layers, their orientation and
position. Due to production of composite materials in many combinations and
forms, each layer may have similar or dissimilar material properties with
different fibre orientations under varying stacking sequences.

Generally, the structural properties of the laminated composites

such as stiffness, strength, and dimensional stability have all been found to
depend on the LSS. In view of each property having different relations with a
particular stacking sequence, the choice of the stacking sequence suited for a
particular application may entail a compromise. It is essential to know the
dynamic characteristics of such structures subjected to dynamic loads in
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complex environmental conditions. The structural components made of

composite materials such as aircraft wings, helicopter blades, vehicle axles,
turbine blades and machine tool structures can be approximated as laminated
composite beams (Kapuria & Alam 2006). A laminated hybrid composite
beam consists of a laminate with more than one lamina bonded together
through its thickness. Each lamina can be distinguished by its material
position in the laminate and orientation of the fibre with respect to the
reference axis. The angle of ply represents each lamina and a slash sign
separates it from other plies. This chapter presents the mathematical
modelling of the elastic properties of the hybrid laminated composite, using
the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT).

3.2 DESIGN GUIDELINES OF A LAMINATE

A number of guidelines have been followed (Bailie et al. 1997) for

taking advantage of the strength of composite structures and precluding their
weakness from the attainment of structural goals. The general guidelines
presented in this section focus on flat unidirectional fabric laminated
composites, to ease analyses and discussions.

A wide range of unidirectional fabric is available and frequently

used. The guidelines for laminates of fabric layers that relate to edge effects
can be relaxed (though not ignored), due to the small differences in the CTE
and Poisson’s ratio in the ply primary directions. The laying of plies in only
three directions automatically results in a fibre-dominated laminate with
fibres in four directions. This is the result of the inherent provision of fibres in
orthogonal directions from each ply. Ease of manufacture and assembly also
plays a significant role in guideline development. The following guidelines
were followed to construct the hybrid laminated composite.
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Guideline 1. A laminate stacking sequence should be symmetric about the

mid-plane to avoid extension-bending coupling. Both geometric and material
properties are symmetric about the mid-plane. Types of symmetric laminates
include angle-ply and cross-ply laminates (Figure 3.1). There are two reasons
why this guideline is representative of good practice:

i. To uncouple bending and membrane response, and

ii. To prevent warping under thermal loading.

(Source: www.pmi.lv/soft/stirel/)

Figure 3.1 Illustration of a general symmetric laminate

Guideline 2. A laminate stacking sequence should be balanced for avoiding

shear-extension coupling. In this context, balanced means that the angle plies
(those at any angle other than 0° or 90°) should occur only in balanced
pairs. For the 0/±45/90 laminate family, any +45° ply is to be accompanied by
a -45° ply. A typical example of the difference between balanced and
unbalanced symmetric laminate is shown in Figure 3.2.
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Figure 3.2 Illustration of balanced and unbalanced symmetric laminate

Guideline 3. Homogeneous lay-up is recommended for a strength-controlled

design. Heterogeneous laminates should be avoided for a strength-critical
design. In cases where heterogeneous laminates cannot be avoided, it is
generally best to stack primary load-carrying plies toward the laminate core.

Guideline 4. Minimize groupings of layers with same orientations to create a

more homogeneous laminate and to minimize interlaminar stress and matrix
cracking during the service period. If layers must be grouped, avoid grouping
more than four plies of the same orientation.

Guideline 5. Avoid grouping of 90° plies and separate 90° plies by a 0° or

45° ply to minimize interlaminar shear and normal stress.

Guideline 6. The laminate should have plies greater than 10% of 0° and 90°
to avoid excessive thermal coefficients of expansion. For symmetric and
balanced laminates, the thermal strains of the laminate membrane depend
linearly on the CTE of the laminate. The control of laminate’s CTE is
particularly important if the laminate is bonded or bolted to a metal structure
and operates in a severe thermal environment, since thermal loading of the
bonded or bolted joint is sensitive to CTE mismatches.
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These design guidelines have been followed for ensuring the

maximum benefits in using the composite materials, while minimizing the
effects of their weaknesses. These guidelines were followed to improve the
overall strength, stiffness and stability of the hybrid laminated composite.

3.3 LAMINATED COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

A laminate is constructed by stacking a number of laminas in the

thickness (z) direction. Each layer is thin and may have different fibre
orientations. The fibre orientation, stacking arrangements and material
properties influence the response from the laminate. The theory of lamination
is the same whether the composite structure is a plate or a beam. Figure 3.3
shows a laminated plate considered in most of the analyses. The following
assumptions are made in the formulations:

i. The middle plane of the plate is the reference plane.

ii. The laminated plate consists of an arbitrary number of

homogeneous, linearly elastic orthotropic layers perfectly
bonded to each other.

iii. The analysis follows linear constitutive relations, i.e. obeys

the generalized Hooke's law for the material.

iv. The lateral displacements are small compared to the plate

thickness.

v. Normal strain in the z-direction is neglected.

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Figure 3.3 Laminated composite plate

As shown in Figure 3.4, laminated beams are made-up of many

plies of orthotropic material. The x-axis coincides with the beam axis, as per
right-handed cartesian coordinate system and its origin is on the mid-plane of
the beam. The length, breadth and thickness of the beam are represented by L,
b and h, respectively.

Figure 3.4 Hybrid laminated composite beam

The design of laminated composite structure starts by selecting the

set of ply angles relevant to the machine tool structure application. The total
number of plies and proportion of each orientation in the laminate is set and a
stacking sequence is chosen as per the design guidelines. The designed
symmetrical laminate consists of the following stacking sequence ([0Cl/0Cl
/90Cl /90Cl /0Gl/90Gl /45Gl /-45Gl /90Cl /0Cl /45Gl /-45Gl /90Gl /0Gl /0Cl /90Cl /0Gl
/90Gl]S) with a total of 36 (16 carbon/epoxy and 20 glass/epoxy layers) plies.
 32

The designed hybrid laminated composite bed has a similar cross section as
that of the mini cast iron lathe bed.

3.4 MATHEMATICAL MODELING

The mathematical analysis is used in the conventional classical

lamination theory and other analysis issues (Khandan et al 2012).

3.4.1 Elastic Behaviour of Multidirectional Laminate - Lamination

Theory

The classical lamination theory predicts the behaviour of the

laminate within the framework of the following assumptions:

Each layer of the laminate is quasi homogeneous and

orthotropic.

All displacements are small compared with the thickness of

the laminate.

Displacements are continuous throughout the laminate, and

transverse shear strains are negligible.

In-plane displacements vary linearly through the thickness of

the laminate.

Strain – displacement and stress – strain relations are linear.

Normal distances from the middle surface remain constant;

i.e., the transverse strain z is negligible (compared with the
in-plane strains x and y).
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3.4.2 Orthotropic Material

In the case of an orthotropic material (which has three mutually

perpendicular planes of material symmetry) the stress- strain relations, in
general, have the same form. However, the number of independent elastic
constants is reduced to nine, as various stiffness and compliance terms are
related. This is clearly seen when the reference system of co-ordinates is
selected along principal lanes of material symmetry, i.e., in the case of a
specially orthotropic material; i.e. for general and special orthotropic
materials the number of independent constants required to define stress (or
strain) at a point is nine, but in case of special orthotropic material most of the
terms get nullified, because:

i. No interaction exists between normal stresses ( 1, 2, 3)

and shear strains ( 4, 5, 6).

ii. No interaction exists between shear stresses ( 4, 5, 6) and

normal strains ( 1, 2, 3).

iii. No interaction exists between shear stresses and shear strains

on different planes; i.e., shear stress acting on a principal
plane produces a shear strain only on that plane.

3.4.3 Force and Moment Relations

A fibre-reinforced composite consisting of multiple layers of

material is called a laminate. Each layer is thin and may have a specific fibre
orientation and different materials. Figure 3.5 shows a global Cartesian co-
ordinate system and a general laminate consisting number (N) of layers.
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Figure 3.5 Geometry and coordinates of a laminate

The laminate thickness is denoted by h and the thickness of a kth

layer is hk. The origin of the thickness co-ordinates, designated as z, is located
at the geometric mid-plane of the laminate. The geometric mid-plane may be
within a particular layer or at an interface between layers. The laminate
extends in the z direction from h/2 to +h/2. The layer, at the most negative
location is layer 1, the next layer is layer 2, the layer at an arbitrary location is
layer k, and the layer at the most positive z position is layer N. The locations
of the layer interfaces are denoted by a subscripted z; the first layer is
bounded by locations z0 and z1, the second layer by z1 and z2, the kth layer by
z 1 and zk, and the Nth layer by z 1 and zN.

The important assumption of the classical lamination theory is that

each point within the volume of a laminate is in a state of plane stress.
Therefore, stresses can be computed if the strains and curvatures of the
reference surface are known. Given the force and moment resultants,
calculation of the stresses and strains through the thickness, as well as the
strains and curvatures on the reference surface is required. This is done by
computing the laminate stiffness matrix. The force resultants Nx, Ny, and Nxy
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can be shown as related to the mid-plane strains ( 0) and curvatures (k0) at the
reference surface by the following equation:

(3.1)

Similarly, the moment resultants Mx, My, and Mxy can also be
shown to be related to the strains and curvatures at the reference surface by
the following equation:

(3.2)

where matrix [A], [B] and [D] are given by

= ( ) (3.3)

= (z z ) (3.4)

= (z z ) (3.5)

where,

[A] = Extensional stiffness matrix for the laminate (N/m)

[B] = Coupling stiffness matrix for the laminate (N)

[D] = Bending stiffness matrix for the laminate (N-m)

In general, the elements of the stiffness matrices [A], [B], and [D]
are functions of the elastic properties of each lamina, and their location with
respect to the mid-plane of the laminate. The above equation can be
represented in brief as,
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[ ] [ ]
(3.6)
[ ] [ ]

The inverse of [A] matrix relates strains with forces and it is

according to { } = [a]{N}, where [a]=[A]-1. A laminate is symmetric when,
for every layer to one side of the laminate reference surface (with a specific
thickness, specific material properties and specific fibre orientation), there is
another layer at the same distance on the opposite side of the reference surface
(with the same thickness, material properties and fibre orientation). When the
laminate is not symmetric, it is referred to as an unsymmetric laminate. For a
symmetric laminate, all the elements of the [B] matrix are identically zero. In
engineering design, the stacking sequence of the laminated plates is made to
be symmetric and balanced, to avoid unpredictable warp deflections.

3.4.4 Laminate Elastic Properties

The possibility of expressing the effective material properties of

each ply in terms of a micromechanical model using the rule of mixture
(Jones 1999) is as follows:

(3.7)

= + (3.8)

= + ( = 12,13 23) (3.9)

(3.10)

(3.11)
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where E11f, E22f, G12f, G13f, G23f, f, and f are the young s modulus, shear
modulus, Poisson s ratio and mass density, respectively, of the fibre, while
Em, Gm, m and m are the corresponding properties of the matrix,
respectively. Vf and Vm are the fibre and matrix volume fractions and must
satisfy the unity condition of Vf+Vm=1.

The concept of elastic constants for the laminate is useful in

idealizing the system as equivalent isotropic material. The laminate elastic
properties are estimated (Mallick 1997) using the relation (3.12).

= = , = , = , = (3.12)

3.5 PROGRAM DESCRIPTION AND FUNCTIONALITY FOR

THE MODELING OF ELASTIC PROPERTIES USING CLT

Currently, the program enclosed is incapable of analysing the

symmetric-balanced hybrid laminates of varying thicknesses about the mid-
plane, whereas the laminate with asymmetric stacking sequences with an even
number of plies is analysed. The commercial software called “The Laminator
(version 3.7)” was used to estimate the theoretical hybrid laminate properties
(Figure 3.6).

In the laminator software, the elastic properties (E11, E12, G12, 12)

of a single ply material in its given principal directions (1, 2, and 3), as well
as the ply geometry, the thickness of each layer and also the stacking
sequence is given as input to construct the [A], [B] and [D] matrices of a
laminated fibre-reinforced composite. Using these [A], [B] and [D] matrices,
the software finds the overall elastic properties (Ex, Ey, Gxy, xy, etc) of the
laminate. Further details of the program features, used in this study are
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presented in Appendix 1. Table 3.1 shows the apparent laminate stiffness

obtained from “The Laminator”, using the classical lamination theory.

Figure 3.6 A typical image from the Laminator

Table 3.1 Elastic properties of the hybrid laminated composite

Property computed Classical lamination theory (The Laminator)

Young’s modulus, Ex (GPa) 42.96
Young’s modulus, Ey (GPa) 39.51
Shear modulus, Gxy (GPa) 7.087

Poisson’s ratio, xy 0.28

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3.6 DAMPING

Damping is a phenomenon by which mechanical energy is

dissipated in dynamic systems. It is the energy dissipation property of a
material or system under cyclic stress. When a structure is subjected to
excitation by an external force, it vibrates in certain amplitude as it reduces
the external force removed. This is due to some résistance offered to the
structural member, which may be internal or external. This resistance is
termed as damping (Lazan 1968).

The study of damping has been taken up primarily in four major

areas like material science, structural mechanics, vibration control and
inspection methods. The energy of the vibrating system is dissipated by
various mechanisms, and generally, with the concurrent presence of more
than one mechanism (Birchak 1977). For the sake of convenience, damping in
vibrating mechanical system is classified depending on the main sources of
energy dissipation and as given below:

1) Internal damping (damping due to material properties)

2) Structural damping (damping at joints and interfaces)

3) Fluid damping (damping through fluid and structure

interactions)

3.6.1 Material (Internal) Damping

Material or internal damping of materials generally originates from

the energy release associated with microstructural defects, such as grain
boundaries and impurities; thermo elastic properties and effects can be
utilised by local temperature gradients resulting from non-uniform stresses, as
in vibrating beams; eddy current effects in ferromagnetic materials;
displacement motion in metals; and chain motion in polymers. Several
simulations have been employed to represent the energy release that can be
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utilised by internal damping (Lazan 1968). This variety of models is primarily

a result of the vast range of engineering materials; no single model can
satisfactorily represent the internal damping characteristics of all materials.

3.6.2 Damping in Machine Tool Structures

The damping inherent in structural members is inadequate; various

external damping techniques have been used in practice to enhance the
damping capacity. The damping in machine tools is basically derived from
two sources, viz., material damping and interfacial slip damping. Material
damping is the damping inherent in the materials from which the machine tool
is constructed. The magnitude of material damping is small compared to the
total damping in machine tools. A typical damping factor value for cast iron
bed is 0.04 - 0.05% (Kim et al. 1995). The aforesaid value accounts for
approximately 10% of the total damping. Interfacial damping results from the
contacting surfaces at bolted joints and sliding joints. This type of damping
accounts for approximately 90% of the total damping. Among the two types
of joints, sliding joints contribute most of the damping (Capps 1983). Welded
joints usually provide very small damping which may be negligible when
considering damping in joints. The damping values (Cremer & Heckl 1988)
of different materials are given in Table 3.2.

3.6.3 Damping Mechanism in Composite Materials

Damping mechanism in composite materials differ entirely from

those in conventional metals and alloys (Morison 1982). The different sources
of energy release in fibre-reinforced composites are:

Visco-elastic nature of matrix and/or fibre materials

Damping due to interphase

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The relationship between the loss factor and the viscous damping
ratio is,

=2 (3.13)

Table 3.2 Typical damping values of different materials

S.No Systems/Materials Loss Factor

1 Welded metal structure 0.0001 to 0.001
2 Bolted metal structure 0.001 to 0.01
3 Aluminium 0.0001
4 Brass, Bronze 0.001
5 Beryllium 0.002
6 Lead 0.5 - 0.002
7 Glass 0.002
8 Steel 0.0001
9 Iron 0.0006
10 Tin 0.002
11 Copper 0.002

3.6.4 Measurement of Structural Damping

There are several ways of expressing the damping in a structure,

out of which two ways are generally used which enable making damping
measurements.

1. Time-response method and

2. Frequency-response method

The basic difference between the above two types of measurements

is that the first type uses a time-response record of the system to estimate
damping, whereas the second type uses a frequency-response record.
Depending on the mathematical model of the physical problem, the above two
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methods are used for measuring the damping capacity of the structures.
Logarithmic decrement ( ) is determined by using the time domain method,
and the quality factor (Q) by the frequency domain method. However, the
other nomenclatures such as: damping ratio ( ), specific damping capacity ( )
and loss factor ( ) are estimated from either of the above two methods for
measuring the damping (Berthelot et al. 2008).

3.6.4.1 Energy balance approach

The loss factor ( ) is commonly used for characterizing the energy

release, due to inelastic behaviour, in a material subjected to cyclic loading.
Assuming linear damping behaviour, is defined by Vantomme (1995) as;

= (3.14)

where W is the amount of energy released during the loading cycle and W is
the strain energy stored during the cycle. The details used in this study are
presented in Appendix 2. The energy balance approach is suitable for the
theoretical assessment of the interface effect. The derived loss factor of the
hybrid composite is 0.0012. The damping factor of the hybrid laminated
composite structure is 2.4 times higher than that of the cast iron structure.

3.7 SUMMARY

This chapter has provided:

The design guidelines and mathematical modelling of a

laminated composite.

The detailed program description and functionality

The next chapter presents the fabrication of the hybrid laminated

composite which is the work material in this investigation.