Free vibrations of composite laminated doubly-curved shells and panels of revolution with general elastic restraints

A unified numerical analysis model is presented to solve the free vibration of composite laminated doubly-curved shells and panels of revolution with general elastic restraints by using the Fourier–Ritz method. The first-order shear deformation theory is adopted to conduct the analysis. The admissible function is acquired by using a modified Fourier series approach in which several auxiliary functions are added to a standard cosine Fourier series to eliminate all potential discontinuities of the displacement function and its derivatives at the edges. Furthermore, the general elastic restraint and kinematic compatibility and physical compatibility conditions are imitated by the boundary and coupling spring technique respectively when the composite laminated doubly-curved panels degenerate to the complete shells of revolution. Then, the desired results are solved by the variational operation. Large quantities of numerical examples are calculated about the free vibration of cross-ply and angle-ply composite laminated doubly-curved panels and shells with different geometric and material parameters. Through the sufficient conclusions obtained from the comparison, it can be seen that highly accurate solutions can be yielded with a little computational effort. To understand the influence of different boundary conditions, lamination schemes, material and geometrical parameters on the vibration characteristics, a series of parametric studies are carried out. Lastly, results for vibration of the composite laminated doubly-curved panels and shells subject to various kinds of boundary conditions and with different geometrical and material parameters are also presented firstly, which can provide the benchmark data for other studies conducted in the future.     

Non-linear buckling for the surface rectangular delamination of laminated piezoelectric shells

An analytical method is presented to study the non-linear buckling characteristic of rectangular local delamination near the surface of fiber-reinforced piezoelectric lamination shells under coupled mechanical and electric loads. The stacking sequence of fiber reinforced lamination shells with piezoelectric layers is considered as symmetry, but the stacking sequence of rectangular local delamination sub-shells is arbitrary. Based on the nonlinear displacement mode of delaminated sub-shells, the effects of electric fields, the geometrical, physical parameters and stacking sequences of piezoelectric laminated shells on the non-linear local buckling for rectangular delamination near the surface of piezoelectric laminated base-shells are solved.     

Analysis of free damped vibrations of laminated composite cylindrical shells

Damped free vibrations of multilayered composite cylindrical shells are investigated. Vibration and damping analysis of cylindrical shells is performed by using the first-order shear deformation theory (FOSDT). Based on other researchers' works, two damping models are developed, i.e., the energy method (EM), and the method of complex eigenvalues (MCE). Several numerical examples of the damped free vibration problem of laminated composite cylindrical shells have been solved and comparison has been made with the results of other authors.Published in Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 646–659, September–October, 1995.     

Thermal buckling analysis of point-supported laminated composite plates in unilateral contact

This paper deals with the thermal buckling analysis of point-supported thin laminated composite plates. The analysis is performed for rhombic and rectangular plates and two cases of bilateral and unilateral buckling. In the unilateral buckling, it is assumed that the plate is in contact with a rigid surface and lateral deflection is forced to be only in one direction. The element-free Galerkin (EFG) method is employed to discretize equilibrium equations. Point supports are modeled in the form of distinct restrained circular surfaces through developing a numerical procedure based on the Lagrange multiplier technique. The unilateral behavior of the plate is incorporated in the analysis by using the penalty method and the Heaviside contact function. The final system of nonlinear algebraic equations is solved iteratively. Two types of point support arrangements are considered and the effect of different parameters such as number of point supports, plate aspect ratio and lamination scheme on the buckling coefficient of composite plates is investigated.     

Analytical modelling of nonlinear buckling of (de-)laminated composite struts

Laminated fibre-reinforced composites are prone to delamination damage. This interlaminar defect lowers the critical buckling load of a strut and may lead to unstable postbuckling. Thus, the critical load of laminated and delaminated struts are the topic of investigation herein. Small scale experimental investigations were undertaken and comparison is sought with analytical formulations whilst a model for a delaminated strut is introduced. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Explicit through-thickness integration schemes for geometric nonlinear analysis of laminated composite shells

Degenerated shell elements were found to be attractive in solving homogeneous shell problems. Direct extension of the same to layered shells becomes computationally inefficient as, in the computation of element matrices, 3-D numerical integration in each layer and summation over the layers have to be carried out. In order to make the formulation efficient, explicit through-thickness schemes have been devised for linear problems. The present paper deals with the extension of the same to geometric nonlinear problems with options of small and large rotations. The explicit through-thickness integration becomes possible due to the assumption on the variation of inverse Jacobian through the thickness. Depending on the assumptions, three different schemes under large and small rotation cases have been presented and their relative numerical accuracy and computational efficiency have been evaluated. It has been observed that there is no sacrifice on the numerical accuracy due to the assumptions leading to the explicit through-thickness integration, but at the same time, there is considerable saving in the computational time. The computational efficiency improves as the number of layers in the laminate increases. The small rotation formulation with the assumption of linear variation of Jacobian inverse across the thickness and based on further approximation regarding certain submatrices is seen to be computationally efficient, as applied to geometric nonlinear layered shell problems.     

Interlaminar stress recovery for arbitrarily curved shells

An established postprocessing procedure for the determination of interlaminar shear and normal stresses based on the results of a conventional shell finite element analysis is generalized for arbitrarily curved laminated shells. The method relies on the three-dimensional equilibrium conditions and an extended lamination theory. Underlying approximations are discussed and exemplary results are presented. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Post buckling response of laminated composite plate on elastic foundation with random system properties

This paper deals with second order statistics of post buckling load of shear deformable laminated composite plates resting on linear elastic foundation with random system properties. The formulation is based on higher order shear deformation plate theory in general von Karman sense, which includes foundation effect using two-parameter Pasternak model. The random system equations are derived using the principal of virtual work. A finite element method is used for spatial descretization of the laminate with a reasonable accuracy. A perturbation technique has been the first time successfully combined with direct iterative technique by neglecting the changes in nonlinear stiffness matrix due to random variation of transverse displacements during iteration. The numerical results for the second order statistics of post buckling loads are obtained. A detailed study is carried out to highlight the characteristics of the random response and its sensitivity to different foundation parameters, the plate thickness ratio, the plate aspect ratio, the support condition, the stacking sequence and the lamination angle on the post buckling response of the laminate. The results have been compared with existing results and an independent Monte Carlo simulation.