The second-order laminated plate theory is utilized in this work to analyze orthotropic composite plates with asymmetric delamination. First, a displacement field satisfying the system of exact kinematic conditions is presented by developing a double-plate system in the uncracked plate portion. The basic equations of linear elasticity and Hamilton’s principle are utilized to derive the system of equilibrium and governing equations. As an example, a delaminated simply supported plate is analyzed using Lévy plate formulation and the state-space model by varying the position of the delamination along the plate thickness. The displacements, strains, stresses and the J-integral are calculated by the plate theory solution and compared with those by linear finite-element calculations. The comparison of the numerical and analytical results shows that the second-order plate theory captures very well the mechanical fields. However, if the delamination is separated by only a relatively thin layer from the plate boundary surface, then the second-order plate theory approximates badly the stress resultants and so the mode-II and mode-III J-integrals and thus leads to erroneous results.
Antiplane–inplane shear mode delamination between two second-order shear deformable composite plates