Interlaminar shear stresses around an internal part-through hole in a laminated composite plate

The equilibrium/compatibility method, which is a semi-analytical post-processing method, is employed for computation of hitherto unavailable through-thickness variation of interlaminar (transverse) shear stresses in the vicinity of the bi-layer interface circumferential re-entrant corner line of an internal part-through circular cylindrical hole weakening an edge-loaded laminated composite plate. A C^o${\text{C}}^{\text{o}}$-type triangular composite plate element, based on the assumptions of transverse inextensibility and layer-wise constant shear-angle theory (LCST), is utilized to first compute the in-plane stresses and layer-wise through-thickness average interlaminar shear stresses, which serve as the starting point for computation of through-thickness distribution of interlaminar shear stresses in the vicinity of the bi-layer interface circumferential re-entrant corner line of the part-through hole. The same stresses computed by the conventional equilibrium method (EM) are, in contrast, in serious error in the presence of the bi-layer interface circumferential re-entrant corner line singularity arising out of the internal part-through hole, and are found to violate the interfacial compatibility condition. The computed interlaminar shear stress can vary from negative to positive through the thickness of a cross-ply plate in the neighborhood of this kind of stress singularity.     

Out-of-plane stresses in composite shell panels: layerwise and elasticity solutions

Boundary-layer effects in lengthy cross-ply laminated circular cylindrical shell panels under uniform axial extension are investigated by two analytical solutions. First, Reddy??s layerwise theory with state-space approach is utilized to determine the local interlaminar stresses. In this method, the general displacement field is discretized through the shell thickness by a linear shape function. When the shell panel is subjected to an axial force, the axial strain is estimated by an equivalent single-layer theory. Second, the stress-function approach along with Fourier series expansion is applied to develop a novel elasticity solution. The elasticity solution, which is based on simply-support edge conditions, is presented to show the effectiveness of the first solution. The numerical results show good agreements. Interlaminar stresses within various symmetric and unsymmetric cross-ply composite shell panels are then calculated and discussed. It is shown that the normal out-of-plane stress can get high magnitudes along the physical interfaces.     

Finite element modeling of delamination by layerwise shell element allowing for interlaminar displacements

This paper presents a novel approach of modeling the delamination phenomenon experienced by laminated composite plate and shell structures by using a previously developed layerwise shell finite element in conjunction with some transformations. This layerwise element is formulated by stacking some single-layered shell elements through a transformation of displacements of the mid-surface of a layer to those on the mid-surface of the laminated composite shell structure. It can accurately model the overall displacements and interlaminar stresses of a laminated composite shell structures whose layers are perfectly (rigidly) bonded. The novelty of the present approach, however, lies in the fact that two different transformations are used so that interlaminar displacements as well as interlaminar stresses can be represented in the finite element model. The transformations allow for displacement mismatches across the normal direction of the layer interfaces (the normal mode of delamination) and between layers (the shear mode). As a result, the proposed methodology can be used to model the open and shear modes of delamination. A two-layered simply supported composite beam and a two-layered simply supported cross-ply square plate are then chosen for numerical studies. These examples demonstrate how the present approach can be applied to accurately model delamination phenomena such as shear slip and normal separation. The paper concludes with suggestions for future work.     

A global-local higher order theory for multilayered shells and the analysis of laminated cylindrical shell panels

Based on the global-local superposition technique proposed by Li and Liu [Li XY, Liu D. Generalized laminate theories based on double superposition hypothesis. Int J Numer Meth Eng 1997;40:1197–212.], a global-local higher order laminated shell model is proposed for predicting both displacement and stress distributions through the thickness of laminated shells. This shell model satisfies transverse shear stress continuity conditions at interfaces as well as free surface conditions of transverse shear stresses. The merit of this model is that transverse shear stresses can be accurately predicted directly from constitutive equations without smoothing techniques. Cylindrical bending of laminated and sandwich shell panels is chosen to assess the present model wherein the results from several 2D laminated shell models and three-dimensional elasticity solution are available for comparison. In addition, thermal bending and thermal expansion of laminated cylindrical shell panels are also considered in this paper.     

Effect of stacking sequence and thickness on the interlaminar stresses for quasi-isotropic laminated plates with a hole

This paper discusses the evaluation of interlaminar stresses, in the presence of in-plane stress gradients, for composite laminates by using three-dimensional equilibrium equations. The stress gradients are calculated by means of an improved finite difference scheme. A quasi-isotropic laminated plate with a circular hole subjected to a uniform tension stress is considered. The effects of stacking sequence and the thickness of the laminate on the interlaminar stresses have been studied.     

Interlaminar shear stresses in laminated composite plates under thermal and mechanical loading

The combined effects of thermal and mechanical loadings on the distribution of interlaminar shear stresses in composite laminated thin and moderately thick composite plates are investigated numerically using the commercially available software package MSC NASTRAN/PATRAN. The validity of the present finite element analysis is demonstrated by comparing the interlaminar shear stresses evaluated using the experimental measurement. Various parametric studies are also performed to investigate the effect of stacking sequences, length to thickness ratio, and boundary conditions on the interlaminar shear stresses with identical mechanical and thermal loadings. It is observed that the effect of thermal environment on the interlaminar shear stresses in carbon-epoxy fiber-reinforced composite laminated plates are much higher in asymmetric cross-ply laminate and anti-symmetric laminate compared to symmetric cross-ply laminate and unidirectional laminate under identical loadings and boundary conditions.     

Nonlinear free vibration analysis of laminated composite shells in hygrothermal environments

The nonlinear free vibration behaviour of laminated composite shells subjected to hygrothermal environments is investigated using the finite element method. The present finite element formulation considers doubly curved shells, and the Green–Lagrange type nonlinear strains are incorporated into the first-order shear deformation theory. The analysis is carried out using quadratic eight-noded isoparametric elements. The validity of the model is demonstrated by comparing the present results with the solutions available in the literature. A parametric study is carried out varying the curvature ratios and side to thickness ratios of composite cylindrical shell, spherical shell and hyperbolic paraboloid shell panels with simply supported boundary conditions.     

An improved zig-zag model for the bending of laminated composite shells

A simple layerwise higher-order zig-zag model is proposed for the bending of laminated composite shells. The model provides a cubic variation of both the in-plane displacements and the transverse shear stresses within each layer. As the displacement model satisfies the zero transverse shear stress conditions at the free surfaces, there is no need for the use of shear correction factors. By imposing the continuity of the in-plane displacements and the transverse shear stresses at the interfaces, the number of variables is shown to be the same as that given by the first-order shear deformation shell theory, irrespective of the number of layers considered. For the sake of consistency, all terms of the order of the thickness coordinate-to-radius ratio have been retained in the derivation of the governing equations. Numerical results for the cylindrical bending of thick, symmetric homogeneous orthotropic and three-layer laminated shells under sinusoidal loading show that the maximum transverse deflections and in-plane stresses are in good agreement with available exact elasticity solutions for radius-to-thickness ratios greater than or equal to four.     

The elastic response of functionally graded cylindrical shells to low-velocity impact

This paper deals with the problem of functionally graded (FG) cylindrical shells subjected to low-velocity impact by a solid striker. An analytic solution to predict the impact response of the FG cylindrical shells with one layer or multi-layers is presented. The solution includes both contact deformation and transverse shear deformation. The effective material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) for the cylindrical shells are assumed to vary continuously through the shell thickness and are graded in the shell thickness direction according to a volume fraction power law distribution. This is implemented in the governing equation of motion and thus included in the present solution. Four types of FG cylindrical shells composed of stainless steel and silicon nitride are configured and their transient responses to impact are computed using the present solution. The effects of the constituent volume fraction and the FGM configuration on the transient response of the laminated cylindrical shell induced by impact are examined.     

Failure initiation in composite structures under low-velocity impact: Analytical studies

This paper presents an analytical model for the response of rectangular, specially orthotropic, symmetric laminated composite plates simply supported on all four sides subjected to low-velocity impact at the midpoint of the plate. The analysis is based considering both global and local effects. The influence of through-the-thickness normal stress on the magnitudes of inplane stresses is also considered. The plate is impacted by an impactor with a hemispherical tip. Contact force at the impact point, lateral displacements and velocities of the plate and the impactor and the stress state within the plate have been determined using modal solution technique. The governing equations, which apply to small deflection elastic response of specially orthotropic laminates, include combined effects of shear deformation and rotary inertia and non-linear Hertzian contact law. Inplane and interlaminar failure functions have been determined using quadratic failure criteria. Based on failure functions, damage initiation in the form of yarn/fiber breakage has been predicted. In general, it is observed that overall failure function is lower for woven fabric composites than for crossply laminates made of unidirectional layers.     

On the validity of nonlinear shear deformation theories for laminated plates and shells

This paper addresses the validity of the recently introduced so-called nonlinear shear deformation theories for laminated composite plates and shells. The finite element method is used to determine the maximum stresses for a wide range of statically loaded plate and shell panels. Various thickness ratios are included. This paper concludes that for the vast majority of composite materials and for moderately thick plates and shells. stresses normally reach the maximum allowable stress before nonlinear terms can become important. This has been demonstrated by showing that for the limiting case of shear deformation theories (in which the minimum span length (or radius) to thickness ratio is 20), the material usually fails before the maximum deflection reaches the magnitude of the thickness (where nonlinear terms start to become significant). Therefore, the nonlinear shear deformation theories, which are considerably more complicated than linear ones, have limited applications.     

Study of the effect of in-plane and interlaminar stresses on damping in fluid-filled laminated composite cylinders

The modal strain energy method is used in conjunction with a three-dimensional finite element analysis in the characterization of the effects of in-plane and interlaminar stresses in fluid-filled composite laminate cylindrical shells. A semi-analytical, 8-noded isoparametric finite element, which includes both the symmetric and antisymmetric modes in the circumferential direction, is used in the analysis. The effects of fiber angle, contained fluid height, size parameter of the shell, and stacking sequence on the contribution of in-plane and interlaminar stresses to the overall system damping in fluid-filled, composite laminate cylindrical shells are studied.     

弹性压头与复合材料层合梁间的弹性接触分析

冲击器与复合材料接触性态的研究是复合材料低速冲击响应研究的关键.本文采用处理弹性接触问题的有限元混合法研究了弹性压头与复合材料层合梁间的弹性接触问题.用数值算例讨论了静力接触定律和压头弹性、层合梁铺设方式及摩擦等因素对接触内力和层合梁内部层间应力大小和分布的影响,得到一些有益的结论.     

A quasi-conforming triangular laminated composite shell element based on a refined first-order theory

A quasi-conforming triangular laminated shell element based on a refined first-order shear deformation theory is presented. The Hu-Washizu variational principle, involving strain and displacement fields as variables, with stresses being considered as Lagrange multipliers, is used to develop the laminate composite shell element. Both strains and displacements are discretized in the element, while displacements alone are discretized at the boundary. The inter-element C ¹ continuity is satisfied a posteriori in a weak form. Due to the importance of rotations and shear deformation in the geometrically non-linear analyses of shells, 7 degrees of freedom per node are chosen, viz. three displacements, two first-derivatives in the in-plane directions of the out-of-plane displacement, and two transverse shear strains at each node. To consider the effect of transverse shear deformation on the global behavior of the laminated composite shell, the Reissner-Mindlin first-order theory, with shear correction factors of Chow and Whitney, is adopted. The transverse shear stresses are obtained through the integration of the 3-D equilibrium equations; and the warping induced by transverse shear is considered in the calculation of the in-plane stresses to improve their accuracy. Numerical examples show that the element has good convergence properties and leads to highly accurate stresses.     

A unified formulation of laminated composite, shear deformable, five-degrees-of-freedom cylindrical shell theories

The main objective of this paper is a theoretical unification of most of the variationally consistent classical and shear deformable cylindrical shell theories available in the literature. This is achieved by introducing into the shell displacement approximation certain general functions of the transverse coordinate which account for the incorporation of the transverse shear deformation effects. Avoiding having to provide a single choice of the forms of these ‘shear deformation shape functions’ befor or during the variational formulation of the general theory, the present formulation leaves open possibilities for a multiple, a-posteriori specification of particular shear deformable shell theories. As a result, the classical Donnell-, Love- and Sanders-type shell theories as well as their well known uniform and parabolic shear deformable analogues are obtained as particular cases. Moreover, a generalized ‘zig-zag’ displacement model is presented which gives further multiple freedom in achieving continuous distributions of interlaminar stresses through the thickness of an unsymmetric cross-ply laminated cylindrical shell.     

An enhanced FSDT model for the calculation of interlaminar shear stresses in composite plate structures

In this paper a procedure is proposed to calculate the interlaminar shear stresses in layered composite plates. The transverse shear stresses are obtained via the constitutive law and derivatives of some warping functions. For 4-node elements the derivatives of curvatures and strains of the reference surface with respect to the in-plane coordinates are determined through a system of four equations. Hence the equilibrium equations lead to a coupled system of ordinary differential equations, which are solved applying a displacement method. The resulting interlaminar shear stresses are continuous at the layer boundaries. The quality of the obtained results is demonstrated within several plate examples with symmetric and unsymmetric lay-ups. Comparisons with two other approaches using 9-node elements and a solid shell formulation together with a three-dimensional material law show good accuracy and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.     

Creep buckling and post-buckling analyses for a hybrid laminated viscoelastic FGM cylindrical shell under in-plane loading

In this paper, creep buckling and post-buckling of a hybrid laminated viscoelastic functionally graded material (FGM) cylindrical shell under in-plane loading are investigated. Considering the high-order transverse shear deformation and geometric nonlinear theory, the von Karman geometric relation of the hybrid laminated viscoelastic FGM cylindrical shell with initial deflection is established. Based on the Donnell theory, elastic piezoelectric theory and Boltzmann superposition principle, nonlinear creep governing equations of the hybrid laminated viscoelastic FGM cylindrical shell under in-plane loading are derived. By means of the finite difference method and the Newton–Newmark method, the problem for creep buckling and post-buckling of the laminated shell’s structure is solved. Numerical results are presented to show effects of geometric parameters, power law index and loading on creep buckling and post-buckling of the hybrid laminated viscoelastic FGM cylindrical shell.     

Stretching and bending deformations due to normal and shear tractions of doubly curved shells using third-order shear and normal deformable theory

ABSTRACT

We analyze static infinitesimal deformations of doubly curved shells using a third-order shear and normal deformable theory (TSNDT) and delineate effects of the curvilinear length/thickness ratio, a/h, radius of curvature/curvilinear length, R/a, and the ratio of the two principal radii on through-the-thickness stresses, strain energies of the in-plane and the transverse shear and normal deformations, and strain energies of stretching and bending deformations for loads that include uniform normal tractions on a major surface and equal and opposite tangential tractions on the two major surfaces. In the TSNDT the three displacement components at a point are represented as complete polynomials of degree three in the thickness coordinate. Advantages of the TSNDT include not needing a shear correction factor, allowing stresses for monolithic shells to be computed from the constitutive relation and the shell theory displacements, and considering general tractions on bounding surfaces. For laminated shells we use an equivalent single layer TSNDT and find the in-plane stresses from the constitutive relations and the transverse stresses with a one-step stress recovery scheme. The in-house developed finite element software is first verified by comparing displacements and stresses in the shell computed from it with those from either analytical or numerical solutions of the corresponding 3D problems. The strain energy of a spherical shell is found to approach that of a plate when R/a exceeds 10. For a thick clamped shell of aspect ratio 5 subjected to uniform normal traction on the outer surface, the in-plane and the transverse deformations contribute equally to the total strain energy for R/a greater than 5. However, for a cantilever shell of aspect ratio 5 subjected to equal and opposite uniform tangential tractions on the two major surfaces, the strain energy of in-plane deformations equals 95–98% of the total strain energy. Numerical results presented herein for several problems provide insights into different deformation modes, help designers decide when to consider effects of transverse deformations, and use the TSNDT for optimizing doubly curved shells.     

Finite element analysis of laminated composite plates using a higher-order displacement model

A C° continuous displacement finite element formulation of a higher-order theory for flexure of thick arbitrary laminated composite plates under transverse loads is presented. The displacement model accounts for non-linear and constant variation of in-plane and transverse displacement model eliminates the use of shear correction coefficients. The discrete element chosen is a nine-noded quadrilateral with nine degrees-of-freedom per node. Results for plate deformations, internal stress-resultants and stresses for selected examples are shown to compare well with the closed-form, the theory of elasticity and the finite element solutions with another higher-order displacement model by the same authors. A computer program has been developed which incorporates the realistic prediction of interlaminar stresses from equilibrium equations.     

复合材料层板层间应力分析的能量法

本文首先探讨了复合材料层板层间应力的问题提法,指出了轻典层板理论与层间应力的层板理论的关系;然后本文给出求解层间应力的方法,将每层的面内应力沿厚度方向以完备函数族进行单向展开,沿宽度方向设其为任意函数,利用平衡方程和余能原理可得任意函数所满足Euler方程,通过求解该方程得到层间应力。本文最后还给出了解决奇异性的方法。计算结果表明,应力分布与奇异项系数的收敛都是迅速的。