Modelling of mechanical behaviour of pre-stressed fibre-reinforced composites is considered in a geometrically exact setting. A general approach which includes two different reference configurations is employed: one configuration corresponds to the load-free state of the structure and another one to the stress-free state of each material particle. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated in terms of a viscoelastic material model; both the matrix and the fibre are modelled using a multiplicative split of the deformation gradient tensor; a transformation rule for initial conditions is elaborated and specified. Apart from its simplicity, an important advantage of the approach is that well-established numerical algorithms can be used for pre-stressed inelastic structures. The interrelation between the advocated approach and the widely used opening angle approach is clarified. A full-scale FEM simulation confirms the main predictions of the opening angle approach. A locking effect is discovered; the effect is that in some cases the opening angle of the composite is essentially smaller than the opening angles of its individual layers. Thus, the standard cutting test typically used to analyse pre-stresses does not carry enough information and more refined experimental techniques are needed.
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