This contribution attempts to model the alteration of the in-plane elastic properties in laminates caused by stitching, and to predict the in-plane effective tensile strength of the stitched composite laminates. The distortion of in-plane fibers is considered to be the main cause that affects the in-plane mechanical properties. A fiber distortion model is proposed to characterize the fiber misalignment and the fiber content concentration due to stitching. The undistorted region, the fiber distortion region, the resin-rich pocket and the through-thickness reinforcement section are taken into account. The fiber misalignment and inhomogeneous fiber content due to stitching have been formulated by introducing two parameters, the distortion width and maximum misalignment. It has been found that the ply stress concentration in stitched laminates is influenced by the two concurrent factors, the stitch hole and inhomogeneous fiber content. The stitch hole brings about the stress concentration whereas the higher fiber content at the local region induced by stitching restrains the local deformation of the composite. The model is used to predict the tensile strength of the [0/45/0/-45/90/45/0/-45]58 T300/QY9512 composite laminate stitched by Kevlar 29 yarn with different stitching configurations, showing an acceptable agreement with experimental data.
