Elastic-plastic stress analysis in an orthotropic composite cantilever beam loaded uniformly

In this study an elastic-plastic stress analysis is carried out in an orthotropic composite cantilever beam loaded uniformly at the upper surface. An analytical solution is found satisfying both the governing differential equation in two dimensional case and boundary conditions. In this solution, the intensity of the uniform force is chosen small, therefore ?y is neglected in comparison with the other stress components. The angles between the first principal axis and x axis are chosen as 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. The plastic region begins first at the upper surface of the beam for 30° and 45° orientation angles. However, it starts earlier at the lower surface for 60° orientation angle. The intensity of the residual stress component of ?x is maximum at the upper and/or lower surfaces in the beam. The intensity of the residual stress component of ?xy is maximum on or around the longitudinal axis of the beam.