Postbuckling of cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells with piezoelectric actuators under complex loading conditions

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a cross-ply laminated cylindrical shell with piezoelectric actuators subjected to the combined action of mechanical, electric and thermal loads. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the shell surface and through the shell thickness and the electric field is assumed to be the transverse component E_z only. The material properties are assumed to be independent of the temperature and the electric field. The governing equations are based on the classical shell theory with a von Kármán–Donnell-type of kinematic nonlinearity. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling, which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, large deflections in the postbuckling range, and initial geometric imperfections of the shell, is extended to the case of hybrid laminated cylindrical shells. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling behavior of perfect and imperfect, cross-ply laminated cylindrical thin shells with fully covered or embedded piezoelectric actuators subjected to combined mechanical loading of external pressure and axial compression, and under different sets of thermal and electric loading conditions. The effects played by temperature rise, applied voltage, shell geometric parameter, stacking sequence, as well as initial geometric imperfections are studied.     

Hygrothermal effects on the postbuckling of shear deformable laminated plates

The influence of hygrothermal effects on the postbuckling of shear deformable laminated plates subjected to a uniaxial compression is investigated using a micro-to-macro-mechanical analytical model. The material properties of the composite are affected by the variation of temperature and moisture, and are based on a micro-mechanical model of a laminate. The governing equations of a laminated plate are based on Reddy's higher-order shear deformation plate theory that includes hygrothermal effects. The initial geometric imperfection of the plate is taken into account. Two cases of the in-plane boundary conditions are considered. A perturbation technique is employed to determine buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling behavior of perfect and imperfect, antisymmetric angle-ply and symmetric cross-ply laminated plates under different sets of environmental conditions. The influences played by temperature rise, the degree of moisture concentration, the character of in-plane boundary conditions, transverse shear deformation, plate aspect ratio, total number of plies, fiber orientation, fiber volume fraction and initial geometric imperfections are studied.     

Nonlinear free vibration of laminated composite plates on elastic foundation with random system properties

The present investigation is concerned with free vibration analysis of laminated composite plates resting on elastic foundation undergoing large amplitude oscillation with random system properties. The lamina material properties and foundation stiffness parameters are modeled as basic random variables for accurate prediction of the system behavior. The basic formulation of the problem is based on higher-order shear displacement theory including rotatory inertia effects and von Karman-type nonlinear strain displacement relations. A C⁰ finite element is used for descretization of the laminate. A direct iterative method in conjunction with first-order Taylor series based perturbation technique procedure is developed to solve random nonlinear generalized eigenvalue problem. The developed probabilistic procedure is successfully used for the nonlinear free vibration problem with a reasonable accuracy. Typical numerical results (second-order statistics) are obtained for the composite plates resting on Winkler and Pasternak elastic foundations with different support conditions, side-to-thickness ratio, aspect ratio, oscillation amplitude ratio, stacking sequences and foundation parameters for symmetric and anti-symmetric cross-ply and angle-ply laminates. The results are validated with existing available results and independent Monte Carlo simulation.     

Nonlinear free and forced vibration of simply supported shear deformable laminated plates with piezoelectric actuators

This paper deals with the nonlinear vibration and dynamic response of simply supported shear deformable cross-ply laminated plates with piezoelectric actuators subjected to mechanical, electrical and thermal loads. The material properties are assumed to be independent of the temperature and electric field. Theoretical formulations are based on the higher order shear deformation plate theory and general von Kármán-type equation, which includes thermo-piezoelectric effects. Due to the bending and stretching coupling effects, a nonlinear static problem is first solved to determine the pre-vibration deformation caused by temperature field and control voltage. By adding an incremental dynamic state to the pre-vibration state, the equations of motion are solved by an improved perturbation technique to determine nonlinear frequencies and dynamic responses of hybrid laminated plates. The numerical illustrations concern nonlinear vibration characteristics of unsymmetric cross-ply laminated plates. The results presented show the effects of temperature rise, applied voltage and stacking sequence on the nonlinear vibration and dynamic response of the plates.     

Postbuckling of shear deformable cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells under combined external pressure and axial compression

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear deformable cross-ply laminated cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to combined loading of external pressure and axial compression. The governing equations are based on Reddy's higher order shear deformation shell theory with von Kármán–Donnell type of kinematic nonlinearity. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling, which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, large deflections in the postbuckling range, and initial geometric imperfections of the shell, is extended to the case of shear deformable laminated cylindrical shells under combined loading cases. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine interactive buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, unstiffened or stiffened, moderately thick, antisymmetric and symmetric cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells for different values of load-proportional parameters.     

Postbuckling analysis of imperfect stiffened laminated cylindrical shells under combined external pressure and thermal loading

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a stiffened laminated cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to combined loading of external pressure and a uniform temperature rise. The formulation is based on a boundary layer theory of shell buckling which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, nonlinear large deflections in the postbuckling range and initial geometrical imperfections of the shell. The “smeared stiffener” approach is adopted for the stiffeners. The analysis uses a singular perturbation technique to determine the interactive buckling loads and the postbuckling equilibrium paths. Numerical examples are presented that relate to the performance of perfect and imperfect, stiffened and unstiffened cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells. Typical results are presented in dimensionless graphical form for different parameters and loading conditions.     

Nonlinear finite element analysis of a laminated cylindrical shell with transverse matrix cracks

A clamped laminated cylindrical shell is presented to investigate nonlinear structural behavior involving geometrically nonlinear deformation. In the investigation, transverse matrix cracks are considered in the stiffness of the laminated cylindrical shell. Stiffness degradation is examined for several laminated angles and transverse crack density. Micro-mechanics theory on the composite material was used to derive the degraded stiffness of the laminated cylindrical shell due to the crack density. Iterative numerical scheme was developed to calculate the degraded composite stiffness which is a complicated relation with the crack density. A nonlinear finite element program was developed using 3-D degenerated shell element and the fist order shear deformation theory to consider the large deformation of the clamped laminated cylindrical shell. The updated Lagrangian method is used for nonlinear finite element analysis. Nonlinear structural responses of the laminated cylindrical shell were examined for various stacking sequences and crack density under transversely loaded pressure. Also, the effect of crack opening/closed was considered in the examination. Through this study, it is realized that the transverse matrix crack causes moderate stiffness reduction and affects the responses of the composite shell.     

Stochastic perturbation-based finite element for deflection statistics of soft core sandwich plate with random material properties

The effect of random variations in material properties of laminated sandwich plates on the transverse deflections is investigated. An improved higher-order plate model is proposed earlier by the authors, which satisfies the transverse shear stress continuity conditions at the layer interfaces including the zero transverse shear stress conditions at the plate top and bottom surfaces. The theory assumes the variation of in-plane displacements to be cubic with discontinuities in the transverse shear strains at the layer interfaces, while the transverse displacements varies quadratically across the core thickness, thereby including transverse normal deformation of the soft core. The core is considered to behave as a 3-D elastic medium. To obtain the second-order statistics of deflections of sandwich plate, a stochastic C⁰ finite element (FE) based on the first-order perturbation technique is developed, where the lamina properties are considered as basic random variables while the other system properties are assumed to be deterministic. The performance of the improved stochastic laminated sandwich model is demonstrated through comparison of mean and standard deviations (SDs) of deflections obtained through independent Monte Carlo simulations and by comparison with results available in literature.     

Stochastic analysis of compositionally graded plates with system randomness under static loading

This paper presents an investigation of the stochastic bending response of moderately thick, compositionally graded plates with uncertainties of low variability and subjected to lateral load and uniform temperature change. System parameters such as the thermal and mechanical material properties of each constituent material, volume fraction index, and load intensity are taken as independent random variables. The basic formulations are based on Reddy's higher-order shear deformation plate theory and a semi-analytical method. A first-order perturbation technique is employed to obtain the second-order response statistics-mean and variance of the flexural deflection of plates with various boundary conditions. Typical results are presented for two types of plates containing functionally graded materials made of metallic phase Ni and ceramic phase Al₂O₃. It is found that the response sensitivity of the plate is very much dependent on the material composition. Variations in Young's modulus and lateral load have dominant effects on the stochastic characteristics compared to other random parameters. The deflection dispersion of compositionally graded plates shows the so-called “non-intermediate” characteristic even when thermal loading is absent.     

The stacking sequence optimization of stiffened laminated curved panels with different loading and stiffener spacing

An efficient procedure to obtain the optimal stacking sequence and the minimum weight of stiffened laminated composite curved panels under several loading conditions and stiffener layouts has been developed based on the finite element method and the genetic algorithm that is powerful for the problem with integer variables. Often, designing composite laminates ends up with a stacking sequence optimization that may be formulated as an integer programming problem. This procedure is applied for a problem to find the stacking sequence having a maximum critical buckling load factor and the minimum weight. The object function in this case is the weight of a stiffened laminated composite shell. Three different types of stiffener layouts with different loading conditions are investigated to see how these parameters influence on the stacking sequence optimization of the panel and the stiffeners. It is noticed from the results that the optimal stacking sequence and lay-up angles vary depending on the types of loading and stiffener spacing.