Book Description

This study presents the warpage analysis in thin-walled beams of arbitrary open cross section subjected to dynamic loads. Strength analysis has also been conducted for laminated composite beams under static loading conditions. The beam has seven displacement degrees of freedom at each node and the element formulation is based on Vlasov theory of thin-walled beams. Coupling between the force and moment resultants, and the transverse shear deformation have been accounted in the development of laminated composite beam theory. Hellinger-Reissner mixed variational principle is used in element formulation, with an augmented Lagrangian to impose the constraint condition on the rotational degree of freedom. A lumped mass matrix for the beam element has been derived, and central difference scheme is used for explicit time integration. The convergence of 2-node and 3-node thin-walled beam finite elements is studied and the results presented. An eigenvalue analysis is also performed using the lumped mass matrix. Several examples of dynamic loading are studied, and the time history results are compared with implicit time integration results obtained using 3D shell models in ANSYS. Results are also presented for various laminate stacking sequences.