Effect of fiber-orientation on stresses at the supporting end of a short cantilever beam of fiber-reinforced composites

Abstract

The effect of fiber orientation on the state of stress, especially around the supporting end of a short cantilever beam of fiber-reinforced composites is investigated. Two limiting cases of fiber orientation are considered for the composite beam. A displacement potential based finite-difference computational scheme is used to obtain the numerical solution of the elastic field of the problem. Analysis of the results shows that the fiber orientation plays an important role in defining the state of stresses, especially around the supporting end of a cantilever beam. The fiber orientation effect is also identified to be influenced by a number of practical issues like, beam aspect-ratio, supporting condition, type of loading and fiber stiffness. Finally, a comparative analysis of the results with the corresponding FEM solution is included to verify the appropriateness as well as accuracy of the present computational study.