Stress recovery techniques end Hessian reconstruction methods

Composite laminated plates became extremely popular in the last decades due to their lightness and high mechanical performances. Such structures, although two-dimensional from the geometric point of view, are inherently three-dimensional as regards their stress state and, indeed, their failure mechanisms. In the present book, stress recovery techniques are revised and some new developments presented, aiming at reconstructing the full three-dimensional stress state by using standard FSDT analyses. The RCP procedure is explained in detail and the advantages obtained by operating within an equilibrated approach in such applications is highlighted.