Mesh-adapted stress analysis of multilayered plates using a layerwise model

This paper proposes a new finite-element modelling of a recent layerwise model for multilayered plates. This layerwise model is built from a specific 3D stress-field expansion along the thickness direction and involves, in particular, interlaminar transverse shear and out-of-plane stresses as generalized stresses. Its main feature is that 3D equilibrium equations and free-edge boundary conditions are directly taken into account into the stress-based construction of the model. A dual displacement-based finite-element discretization is implemented using the FEniCS software package and a remeshing strategy is proposed based on a novel error indicator. The error indicator is built based on the 3D stress field directly deduced from the layerwise generalized stresses and compared to a reconstructed stress field based on the model generalized displacements. The proposed error indicator is shown to identify the most critical parts of a laminate structure associated with complex 3D stress fields such as boundaries or stress concentration/singularity regions (near free-edges or delamination fronts). Through the combination of thickness discretization and in-plane mesh refinement in regions of interest, the proposed framework therefore offers an attractive alternative to 3D solid finite elements for an accurate prediction of stress states in composite laminates.