On the elastic properties of fiber composite laminates with statistically dispersed fiber and ply orientations.

Structural application of advanced composite filamentary materials requires lamination of the basic orthotropic plies into angle-ply laminates. This article reviews the effect on elastic properties of orientation dispersion. The conventional constitutive relations are recast in a homologous form to account for uniform orientation dispersion by addition of a single parameter. Graphical results are presented to show the behavior of the most important advanced composite materials. The results are directly useful for estimating effects of manufacturing inaccuracy and for design of partially oriented reinforced structures.