Homogenized laminates offer great advantages for design optimization, tapering, and simpler manufacturing. This can be achieved by stacking identical building blocks, so the laminate normalized in-plane stiffness components converge to the flexural stiffnesses. In this research, it was shown that the rate of convergence of quadriaxial laminates varies with layup. A family of three quadriaxial carbon fiber reinforced plastic CFRP laminates showing the fastest convergence was studied: one quasi-isotropic +45/−45/0/90 and two hard +45/−45/0 2 /90 and +45/−45/0 3 /90. The study showed that the ratios between the average strengths of different quadriaxial laminates will be the same for a given material. In addition, for a given quadriaxial laminate, the relative strengths between CFRP materials are the same. In summary, this investigation opens new opportunities for design and manufacturing that can be explored with homogenized quadriaxial laminates, providing a framework for engineers to select layups based on predictable convergence rates and strength relationships.
Tsai et al. (Wed,) studied this question.