Abstract
The basic building block of a filamentary-composite laminate is a ply or a lamina consisting of a larger number of stiff filaments (e.g. glass) embedded in a compatible material (e.g. epoxy). The laminate or multi-directional composite is considered to comprise a number of perfectly bonded laminas with different fibre orientations. The deformation response of a laminate to an applied force is calculated by means of its material constants. One of the common methods of determining these constants is by means of a micro-macro mechanical analysis in which the characteristics of the composite are found in terms of the constituent material properties, geometry, and volume percentage of fibre content. Numerous papers have been published to investigate the micro-macro mechanical approach. Some of these works are based on the mechanics of materials approach and on the variational principle of minimum potential energy, as well as on the classical theory of elasticity.