Wave propagation in layer with two preferred directions

Abstract This article is concerned with overall or macroscopic properties of a composite material with no distinction made between the fibres and the matrix which they are embedded in. All the properties with dimensions larger than the fibre diameter and spacing are regarded as averaged over a volume of material. The systems of particular interest here are in the fibre reinforced composites with the fibres being very much stiffer and stronger than the matrix. Laminated plates of fibre-reinforced material are often fabricated from prepreg tapes, laid up according to some specific arrangement of fibre orientation and then bonded together. An angle-ply laminate is formed by alternating plies so that the families in adjacent laminas are inclined by angle ϕ and − ϕ to given direction alternately. The process of fabricating a multilayered plate of this material gives rise to a laminate in which the plies are separated by resin rich layer, and when this layer is thin enough that its thickness is negligible it may be regarded as plate reinforced by two families of fibres. Problems shall be considered in three dimensions, but attention shall be restricted to linear elasticity theory. The plate under consideration is reinforced by two mechanically equivalent families of fibres, but with no other preferred directions, so that it is locally orthotropic with respect to the plane of the fibres and to the two planes that orthogonally bisect the fibres. In this article linear elastic stress–strain relation is employed to derive dispersion curves for plane harmonic waves propagating in a plate of finite thickness but of infinite lateral extent. Attention is restricted to waves propagating in the plane parallel to stress free plate faces where waves travelling at any angle to one of the families of very strong fibres are examined. The dispersion equations, relating the phase velocity to the wavelength, are obtained. The fundamental modes are examined for symmetric as well as for anti-symmetric deformations. This leads to full understanding of displacement field as well as stress field.