ABSTRACT: Theories for composite material structures are too difficult for such design engineers for construction and some simple but accurate enough methods are necessary. The author has reported that some laminate orientations have decreasing values of D16, B16, D26 and B26 stiffnesses as the ply number increases. For such plates, the fiber orientations given above behave as specially orthotropic plates and simple formulas developed by the author. Most of the bridge deck structures on girders have large aspect ratios. For such cases further simplification is possible by neglecting the effect of the longitudinal moment terms Mx on the relevant partial differential equations of equilibrium. In this paper, the result of the study on the subject problem is presented.

Keywords: composite material structures, specially orthotropic, longitudinal moment terms, finite difference method, beam theory