• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 1991

The paper is concerned with the analysis of laminated composite shell structures using an improved degenerated shell element. In the formulation of the element stiffness, the combined use of three different techniques was made. They are; 1) an enhanced interpolation of transverse shear strains in the natural coordinate system to overcome the shear locking problem; 2) the reduced integration technique in in-plane strains to avoid the membrane locking behavior; and 3) selective addition of the nonconforming displacement modes to improve the element performances. This element is free of serious shear/membrane locking problems and undesirable compatible/commutable spurious kinematic deformation modes. An incremental total Lagrangian formulation is presented which allows the calculation of arbitrarily large displacements. The resulting non-linear equilibrium equations are solved by the Newton-Raphson method. The versatility and accuracy of this improved degenerated shell element are demonstrated by solving several numerical examples.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.257-277
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• 2011

In this paper the geometrically nonlinear continuum plate finite element model, hitherto not reported in the literature, is developed using the total Lagrange formulation. With the layerwise displacement field of Reddy, nonlinear Green-Lagrange small strain large displacements relations (in the von Karman sense) and linear elastic orthotropic material properties for each lamina, the 3D elasticity equations are reduced to 2D problem and the nonlinear equilibrium integral form is obtained. By performing the linearization on nonlinear integral form and then the discretization on linearized integral form, tangent stiffness matrix is obtained with less manipulation and in more consistent form, compared to the one obtained using laminated element approach. Symmetric tangent stiffness matrixes, together with internal force vector are then utilized in Newton Raphson's method for the numerical solution of nonlinear incremental finite element equilibrium equations. Despite of its complex layer dependent numerical nature, the present model has no shear locking problems, compared to ESL (Equivalent Single Layer) models, or aspect ratio problems, as the 3D finite element may have when analyzing thin plate behavior. The originally coded MATLAB computer program for the finite element solution is used to verify the accuracy of the numerical model, by calculating nonlinear response of plates with different mechanical properties, which are isotropic, orthotropic and anisotropic (cross ply and angle ply), different plate thickness, different boundary conditions and different load direction (unloading/loading). The obtained results are compared with available results from the literature and the linear solutions from the author's previous papers.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.299-322
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• 2013

In the case of seismic-resistant composite dual moment resisting and eccentrically braced frames, the current design practice is to avoid the disposition of shear connectors in the expected plastic zones, and consequently to consider a symmetric moment or shear plastic hinges, which occur only in the steel beam or link. Even without connectors, the real behaviour of the hinge may be different from the symmetric assumption, since the reinforced concrete slab is connected to the steel element close to the hinge locations, and also due to contact friction between the concrete slab and the steel element. The paper presents the results and conclusions of experimental tests on composite portal eccentrically braced frames and beam-to-column moment-resisting joints, carried out within the CEMSIG Research Centre of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, in order to check the validity of the assumption stated above. Reference steel and composite specimens with and without connectors in the plastic zones have been tested under monotonic and cyclic seismic type loading.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.323-342
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• 2013

In the case of seismic-resistant composite dual moment resisting and eccentrically braced frames, the current design practice is to avoid the disposition of shear connectors in the expected plastic zones, and consequently to consider a symmetric moment or shear plastic hinges, which occur only in the steel beam or link. Even without connectors, the real behavior of the hinge may be different from the symmetric assumption since the reinforced concrete slab is connected to the steel element close to the hinge locations, and also due to contact friction between the concrete slab and the steel element. At a larger level, the structural response in the case of important seismic motions depends directly on the elasto-plastic behavior of elements and hinges. The numerical investigation presented in this study summarizes the results of elasto-plastic analyses of several steel frames, considering the interaction of the steel beam with the concrete slab. Several parameters, such as the inter-story drift, plastic rotation requirements and behavior factors q were monitored. In order to obtain accurate results, adequate models of plastic hinges are proposed for both the composite short link and composite reduced beam sections.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.51-71
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• 2018

This work proposes a theoretical and numerical study on the behavior of a tapered shaft rotor made of composite materials by the classical version h and the version p of the finite element method. Hierarchical form functions are used to define the model. The purpose of this paper is to determine the expressions of the kinetic and potential energies of the tree necessary for the results of the equations of motion. A comparison between the version h and the p version of the finite element method of the functions of polynomial and trigonometric hierarchical forms with six degrees of freedom per node, of a composite tapered and cylindrical shaft which rotates at a constant speed about its axis. It is found that when the number of functions of form (the version p) is increased, the solution converges. It is also observed that the conicity of the shaft increases the rigidity with respect to a uniform shaft having the same mechanical properties. The numerical simulation allowed us to determine the natural frequencies and the critical speeds of the composite shaft systems are compared with those available in the literature and the effectiveness of the methods used are discussed.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2017

Utilizing composite members in structures has been considered by many researchers in the past few decades. Using FRP can be very effective owing to its excessively high-tensile strength, which compensate concrete weak performance in tension. In this research, the studied composite beam includes a GFRP semi-confined trapezoidal section covered by GFRP and concrete layers. To assess the bearing capacity, a finite-element model of a composite beam subjected to displacement control loading has been developed and the results were validated using experimental results found throughout the literature. Several parameters affecting the bending performance and behavior of the semi-confined beam have been investigated in this study. Some of these parameters included the thickness of GFRP trapezoidal section members, concrete layer thickness, GFRP layer thickness and the confinement degree of the beam. The results revealed that the beam confinement had the highest effect on the bearing capacity due to prevention of separation of concrete from GFRP which causes the failure of the beam. From the results obtained, an optimal model of primary beam section has been introduced, which provides a higher bearing capacity with the same volume of materials used in the original beam section.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.77-83
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• 2011

Laminated composite plates have shown their superiority over metals in applications requiring high specific strength, high specific modulus, and so on. Therefore, they have used in various industry. However, they have poor resistance to impact compared to typical metal materials. To resolve this problem by many researchers for a variety of studies have been attempted. This study investigates characteristic of impact behavior of laminated composite plates due to initial stress. Using finite element program which involved the indentation law, we investigate characteristic of impact behavior of laminated composite plates due to initial stress.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2009

This paper describes the results of experiments and numerical simulation studies on the impact and indentation damage created by low-velocity impact subjected onto honeycomb sandwich panels for application to the BIMODAL tram. The test panels were subjected to low-velocity impact loading using an instrumented testing machine at six energy levels. Contact force histories as a function of time were evaluated and compared. The extent of the damage and depth of the permanent indentation was measured quantitatively using a 3-dimensional scanner. An explicit finite element analysis based on LS-DYNA3D was focused on the introduction of a material damage model and numerical simulation of low-velocity impact responses on honeycomb sandwich panels. Extensive material testing was conducted to determine the input parameters for the metallic and composite face-sheet materials and the effective equivalent damage model for the orthotropic honeycomb core material. Good agreement was obtained between numerical and experimental results; in particular, the numerical simulation was able to predict impact damage area and the depth of indentation of honeycomb sandwich composite panels created by the impact loading.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.501-524
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• 2014

This paper presents a type of composite box girder with corrugated webs and concrete filled steel tube slab to overcome cracking on the web and reduce self-weight. Utilizing corrugated steel web improves the efficiency of prestressing introduced into the top and bottom slabs due to the accordion effect. In order to understand the loading capacity of such new composite structure, experimental and numerical analyses were conducted. A full-scale model was loaded monotonically to investigate the deflection, strain distribution, loading capacity and stiffness during the whole process. The experimental results show that test specimen has enough loading capacity and ductility. Based on experimental works, a finite element (FE) model was established. The load-displacement curves and stress distribution predicted by FE model agree well with that obtained from experiments, which demonstrates the accuracy of proposed FE model. Moreover, simplified theoretical analysis was conducted depending on the assumptions which were confirmed by the experimental and numerical results. The simplified analysis results are identical with the tested and numerical results, which indicate that simplified analytical model can be used to predict the loading capacity of such composite girder accurately. All the findings of present study may provide reference for the application of such structure in bridge construction.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.379-397
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• 2013

Conoidal shells are doubly curved stiff surfaces which are easy to cast and fabricate due to their singly ruled property. Application of laminated composites in fabrication of conoidal shells reduces gravity forces and mass induced forces compared to the isotropic constructions due to the high strength to weight ratio of the material. These light weight shells are preferred in the industry to cover large column free open spaces. To ensure design reliability under service conditions, detailed knowledge about different behavioral aspects of conoidal shell is necessary. Hence, in this paper, static bending, free and forced vibration responses of composite conoidal shells are studied. Lagrange's equation of motion is used in conjunction with Hamilton's principle to derive governing equations of the shell. A finite element code using eight noded curved quadratic isoparametric elements is developed to get the solutions. Uniformly distributed load for static bending analysis and three different load time histories for solution of forced vibration problems are considered. Eight different stacking sequences of graphite-epoxy composite and two different boundary conditions are taken up in the present study. The study shows that relative performances of different shell combinations in terms of static behaviour cannot provide an idea about how they will relatively behave under dynamic loads and also the fact that the points of occurrence of maximum static and dynamic displacement may not be same on a shell surface.