A three-dimensional finite-element model is developed to analyze the interlaminar stress state surrounding an interlaced. active actuator embedded within a unidirectional composite laminate. Interlacing increases the strength of composite structures with embedded actuators by redistributing t h e load around the inclusion and softening the material discontinuity between the actuator and the composite structure. The analysis shows that interlacing results in as much as a 42% reduction in the magnitude of the maximum interlaminar tensile normal stress and a 22% reduction in the magnitude of the maximum interlaminar shear stress in the laminate. Moreover, the critical location of delamination initiation can be relocated from the interface between the actuator and the host material to a location away from the embedded actuator, thus maintaining the authority of the actuator even after the onset of delamination.

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Abstract.A laminated composite material consists of different layers of matrix and fibres. Its properties can vary a lot with each layer's or ply's orientation, material property and the number of layers itself. The present paper focuses on a novel approach of incorporating an analytical method to arrive at a preliminary ply layup order of a composite laminate, which acts as a feeder data for the further detailed analysis done on FEA tools. The equations used in our MATLAB are based on analytical study code and supply results that are remarkably close to the final optimized layup found through extensive FEA analysis with a high probabilistic degree. This reduces significant computing time and saves considerable FEA processing to obtain efficient results quickly. The result output by our method also provides the user with the conditions that predicts the successive failure sequence of the composite plies, a result option which is not even available in popular FEM tools. The predicted results are further verified by testing the laminates in the laboratory and the results are found in good agreement.

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