ABSTRACT

Fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polymers are the primary reasons for their use in many structural components in the aircraft, automotive, marine, and other industries due to their low density, high strength, high stiffness to weight ratio, excellent durability and design flexibility. They are now used in applications ranging from space craft frames to ladder rails, from aircraft wings to automobile doors, from rocket motor cases to oxygen tanks, and from printed circuit boards to tennis rackets. Their use is increasing at such a rapid rate that they are no longer considered advanced materials. Residual stresses in the composite plates are particularly important. They can lead to premature failure. Therefore, the characterization of the elasto-plastic response of thermoplastic composite must be carried out along the credible design processes for composite structures involving plasticity effects in the nonlinear behavior. In this thesis, residual stresses developed on Flouoro polymer laminated thermoplastic composite plates with central elliptical hole which is subjected to in-plane loading is determined by applying different loads. The effects of orientation angle of elliptical hole in the composite laminated plate under various in-plane loads, elliptical hole is rotated from 0° to 90° by 15° increments counter clockwise. Analysis is done in Ansys.