American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA Journal, 7(44), p. 1579-1585, 2006
DOI: 10.2514/1.17367
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A stitched composite structure made of fiber-reinforced polymers is analyzed. This composite structure is modeled by two specially orthotropic adhesively bonded, delaminated and stitched plates under in-plane compressive and shear loads and internal hygrothermal pressure acting on delamination surfaces of the two plates, which are considered as identical, and simply supported. Whereas the adhesive layer between plate layers is modeled by mechanical linear normal and shear springs, stitches are modeled by discrete bilinear normal springs for the first time in the literature. In the stitches modeling, it is assumed that they can carry only normal loads because they are very thin and also initial imperfections are included with the parameter of looseness because the stitching yarns are slack initially. The mathematical model of the problem is solved by Rayleigh-Ritz method. After the strain energies of plates, the adhesive layer and the stitches and energy potentials for external loads such as compressive normal loads, shear loads, and internal hygrothermal pressure are expressed, sine series as shape functions for plate vertical deflections satisfying simply supported boundary conditions are applied. Then, minimizing the total energy gives deflections for the given loading. The stability condition is obtained as an eigenvalue problem to give critical buckling loads and corresponding mode shapes as well. Results are presented as plots of deformed shapes of the system and tables of parametric studies showing effects of changing parameters on stitch stresses and displacements, critical buckling loads, and corresponding mode shapes. Copyright © 2006 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.