Validation of Present Model

The present model has been applied on an important earlier work [Guirgiutiu et al , 2001] on woven composite laminates for its validation. Guirgiutiu et al , [2001] have presented theoretical and experimental results for stress and strain profile in a woven composite beam and have determined the magneto-mechanical coupling for a seven layer smart beam tagged with Terfenol-D particulates in the top and bottom layers. Stress and strain profiles have been determined using two approaches namely - balanced orthotropic (BO) and orthotropic cross ply equivalent layers for woven composites [Figure 33.10 (a) and (b)].

Figure 33.10 (a) Balanced orthotropic and (b) Orthotropic cross ply layup models.

Since a woven roving has fibers in warp and fill directions, a woven layer was replaced with two equivalent conventional layers in the fill and warp direction with half the original thickness as suggested by Tsai [1998]. The other approach used by them is to replace the balanced woven layer by an orthotropic layer with averaged properties. A woven composite having fibers aligned with the loading axes gives BO behavior. They have determined the stress and strain convergence for the above mentioned two approaches for woven composites by doubling the number of layers while reducing the thickness of the layer so as to keep the overall thickness of the laminate fixed.