Abstract: A new stress element near a hole which satisfies both the stress boundary conditions at the hole and at the surface of the laminate and stress continuity condition at the interface is developed. The stress field near the hole can be analyzed exactly on the basis of the displacement field obtained by FEM using the stress element.The new stress element is formulated as follows. The three dimensional stress field satisfying equilibrium equations in cylindrical coordinates and the above-mentioned stress conditions is expressed in G.Morera stress functions. Applying the complementary energy principle and the method of Lagrangian multipliers,the fundamental parameters of the stress element can be found. Some examples of calculation using this stress element show that the results are consistent with the analytical solutions and the experimental results.

Key words: stress element, composite laminate, stress field near a hole