Poisson’s ratio effects, to a large extent, control the thermal expansion characteristics of angle-ply laminates. It is possible to design laminates, that have been manufactured from some highly orthotropic laminae, to exhibit a zero coefficient of expansion along one of its directions, even though none of the expansion coefficients of the laminae themselves are negative. It is often mistakenly believed that at least one of the expansion coefficients has to be negative in order for this effect to be achieved. However, it is the internal coupling of the individual expansion coefficients via the very high laminate Poisson’s ratio that actually enables this. The paper illustrates the effect via a simple Abaqus model and in so doing graphically cements the idea in the minds of the FEM analyst.
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