Solutions are presented for the stresses in a specially orthotropic infinite strip which is subjected to localized uniform normal loading on one edge while the other edge is either restrained against normal displacement only, or completely fixed. The solutions are used to investigate the diffusion of load into the strip and in particular the decay of normal stress across the width of the strip. For orthotropic strips representative of a broad range of balanced and symmetric angle-ply composite

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... aminates, minimum strip widths are found that ensure at least 90% decay of the normal stress across the strip. In addition, in a few cases where, on the fixed edge the peak shear stress exceeds the normal Address correspondence to W. B. 7_ Upon appropriate passage to the limit, the type I and type III expressions reduce to the isotropic result• Numerical values of the maximum shear stresses in the eight featured .. . .