Hybrid stress reduced-Mindlin elements for thin multilayer plates

A hybrid-stress formulation of isoparametric elements for the analysis of thin multilayer laminated composite plates is presented. The element displacement behaviour is characterized by laminate reference surface inplane and transverse displacements and laminate non-normal cross-section rotations; as a result, simple C^o interpolation of displacement and rotation can be used, and the number of degrees-of-freedom is independent of the number of layers. All components of stress are included and are related to a set of laminate stress parameters, the number of which is independent of the number of layers. Attention is restricted here to thin laminates, for which it is shown that the contributions of transverse shear stress and transverse normal stress to the internal complementary energy can be neglected. As a result of this reduction, a modified stiffness-formation algorithm can be used which provides a significant improvement in computational efficiency. The formulation presented is used to develop an 8-node isoparametric thin multilayer plate element. The resulting element is naturally invariant, of correct rank, and non-locking in the thin plate limit.     

A Serendipity cubic-displacement hybrid-stress element for thin and moderately thick plates

A hybrid-stress element is developed for the analysis of thin and moderately thick plates. The independent transverse displacement and rotations are interpolated by the 12-node cubic Serendipity shape functions. All components of stress are included and 36β stress assumption is used. The element stiffness possesses correct rank and numerical results indicate that the element does not lock in the thin-plate limit. Results obtained using the present element are compared with those obtained using a 12-node assumed-displacement based Mindlin plate element with reduced integration; the present hybrid-stress element is shown to yield superior accuracy for all cases considered. In addition, the accuracy of the present element is compared against that of analogous 4-node and 8-node hybrid-stress Mindlin plate elements.     

Through-the-thickness stress predictions for laminated plates of advanced composite materials

A finite element formulation is developed with emphasis primarily focused on providing stress predictions for thin to moderately thick plate (shell) type structures. Plate element behaviour is specified by prescribing independently the neutral surface displacements and rotations, thus relaxing the Kirchhoff hypothesis. Numerical efficiency is achieved due to the simplicity of the element formulation, i.e. the approach yields a displacement dependent multi-layer model. In-plane layer stresses are determined via the constitutive equations, while the transverse shear and short-transverse normal stresses are determined via the equilibrium equations. Accurate transverse stress variations are obtained by appropriately selecting the displacement field for the element. A selective reduced integration technique is utilized in computing element stiffness matrices. Static and spectral (eigenvalue) tests are performed to demonstrate the element modelling capability.     

Invariant 8-node hybrid-stress elements for thin and moderately thick plates

Eight-node hybrid-stress elements are developed for the analysis of plates ranging from arbitrarily thin to moderately thick. The displacement behaviour is characterized by a transverse displacement and independent cross-section rotations, which are interpolated using the 8-node Serendipity shape functions. All components of stress are included; alternative elements are developed which differe in the form of the inplane distribution of the stresses. Elements are sought for whic the stiffiness is invariant and of correct rank, and whic show on signs of deterioration in the thin-plate limit. A discussion of the prospects for developing a 4-node element with these characteristics is also presented. Example problems are used to compare the performance of the 8-node elements including convergence behaviour, intraelement stress distributions and optimal sampling locations, and range of applicability in terms of plate thickness ratio.     

The geometric stiffness of thick shell triangular finite elements for large rotations

This paper is concerned with the development of the geometric stiffness matrix of thick shell finite elements for geometrically nonlinear analysis of the Newton type. A linear shell element that is comprised of the constant stress triangular membrane element and the triangular discrete Kirchhoff Mindlin theory (DKMT) plate element is ‘upgraded’ to become a geometrically nonlinear thick shell finite element. Perturbation methods are used to derive the geometric stiffness matrix from the gradient, in global coordinates, of the nodal force vector when stresses are kept fixed. The present approach follows earlier works associated with trusses, space frames and thin shells. It has the advantage of explicitness and clear physical insight. A special procedure, tailored to triangular elements is used to isolate pure rotations to enable stress recovery via linear elastic constitutive relations. Several examples are solved. The results compare well with those available in the literature. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multilayer hybrid-stress finite element analysis of composite laminate with through-thickness cracks

An assumed hybrid-stress finite element model using a simple composite multilayer element is developed to analyze generally thin or moderately thick composite laminates with through-thickness cracks. The assumed stress field satisfies: (i) equilibrium conditions within each layer, (ii) the traction reciprocity conditions at interlaminar boundaries, and (iii) the traction-free boundary conditions at the top and bottom faces of the laminate. Since the number of nodes and assumed stress parameters are independent of the number of layers, the multilayer element devised is quite effective especially for the laminate with a large number of layers. Several selected composite laminates with a through-thickness edge crack are solved. Many fewer degrees of freedom and only a one-step solution are necessary for the present technique. The variations of mixed-mode stress intensity factors across the thickness of the composite laminate are also computed. Excellent agreements between the present results and referenced solutions are drawn. The technique developed is also applicable to analyze the structural behaviors of the cracked laminate with arbitrary fiber orientation and stacking sequence for which the stress singularity has not yet been found.     

A stabilized one‐point integrated quadrilateral Reissner–Mindlin plate element

A new quadrilateral Reissner–Mindlin plate element with 12 element degrees of freedom is presented. For linear isotropic elasticity a Hellinger–Reissner functional with independent displacements, rotations and stress resultants is used. Within the mixed formulation the stress resultants are interpolated using five parameters for the bending moments and four parameters for the shear forces. The hybrid element stiffness matrix resulting from the stationary condition can be integrated analytically. This leads to a part obtained by one‐point integration and a stabilization matrix. The element possesses a correct rank, does not show shear locking and is applicable for the evaluation of displacements and stress resultants within the whole range of thin and thick plates. The bending patch test is fulfilled and the computed numerical examples show that the convergence behaviour is better than comparable quadrilateral assumed strain elements. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vibration of shear-deformable rectangular plates using a spline-function Rayleigh-Ritz approach

The prediction of the natural frequencies of vibration of rectangular plates or orthotropic laminates is described, through the use of B-spline functions as trial functions in a Rayleigh-Ritz approach. Through-thickness shear deformation effects are included in the analysis and hence assumptions have to be made for the spatial variation over the plate middle surface of each of the lateral deflection and the two rotation components. Two versions of the spline-function Rayleigh-Ritz approach are described: in one of these the deflection and rotations are represented by functions of the same polynomial order, whilst in the other a lower-order representation is used for each rotation component in one of the co-ordinate directions. It is shown in a number of applications that the former version leads to shear-locking behaviour whilst the latter version avoids this behaviour and is suitable for the analysis of both thick and thin plates.     

Two simple and efficient displacement‐based quadrilateral elements for the analysis of composite laminated plates

Two simple 4‐node 20‐DOF and 4‐node 24‐DOF displacement‐based quadrilateral elements named RDKQ‐L20 and RDKQ‐L24 are developed in this paper based on the first‐order shear deformation theory (FSDT) for linear analysis of thin to moderately thick laminates. The deflection and rotation functions of the element sides are obtained from Timoshenko's laminated composite beam functions. Linear displacement interpolation functions of the standard 4‐node quadrilateral isoparametric plane element and displacement functions of a quadrilateral plane element with drilling degrees of freedom are taken as in‐plane displacements of the proposed elements RDKQ‐L20 and RDKQ‐L24, respectively. Due to the application of Timoshenko's laminated composite beam functions, convergence can be ensured theoretically for very thin laminates. The elements are simple in formulation, and shear‐locking free for extremely thin laminates even with full integration. A hybrid‐enhanced procedure is employed to improve the accuracy of stress analysis, especially for transverse shear stresses. Numerical tests show that the new elements are convergent, not sensitive to mesh distortion, accurate and efficient for analysis of thin to moderately thick laminates. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

复合材料层板低速冲击后剩余压缩强度

对两种材料体系和铺层的复合材料层合板进行低速冲击后压缩强度试验 , 以研究低速冲击后层合板的压缩破坏机理。讨论了表面凹坑深度、 背面基体裂纹长度、 损伤面积以及剩余压缩强度与冲击能量的关系。在试验研究的基础上 , 建立了复合材料低速冲击后剩余强度估算的一种椭圆形弹性核模型。该模型将冲击损伤等效为一刚度折减的椭圆形弹性核 , 采用含任意椭圆核各向异性板杂交应力有限元分析含损伤层合板的应力应变状态 ,并应用点应力判据预测层板的压缩(或压、 剪)剩余强度。理论分析与试验结果对比表明 , 该模型简单有效。      

Modeling of wave propagation in layered piezoelectric media by a recursive asymptotic method

In this paper, a simple asymptotic method to compute wave propagation in a multilayered general anisotropic piezoelectric medium is discussed. The method is based on explicit second and higher order asymptotic representations of the transfer and stiffness matrices for a thin piezoelectric layer. Different orders of the asymptotic expansion are obtained using Padé approximation of the transfer matrix exponent. The total transfer and stiffness matrices for thick layers or multilayers are calculated with high precision by subdividing them into thin sublayers and combining recursively the thin layer transfer and stiffness matrices. The rate of convergence to the exact solution is the same for both transfer and stiffness matrices; however, it is shown that the growth rate of the round-off error with the number of recursive operations for the stiffness matrix is twice that for the transfer matrix; and the stiffness matrix method has better performance for a thick layer. To combine the advantages of both methods, a hybrid method which uses the transfer matrix for the thin layer and the stiffness matrix for the thick layer is proposed. It is shown that the hybrid method has the same stability as the stiffness matrix method and the same round-off error as the transfer matrix method. The method converges to the exact transfer/stiffness matrices essentially with the precision of the computer round-off error. To apply the method to a semispace substrate, the substrate was replaced by an artificial perfect matching layer. The computational results for such an equivalent system are identical with those for the actual system. In our computational experiments, we have found that the advantage of the asymptotic method is its simplicity and efficiency.     

无限大多层层合板隔声量分析

多层层合板结构被广泛应用于隔声结构设计中.为探究多层层合板的隔声性能,在无限大单层薄板隔声量计算公式的基础上,通过引入由经典层合板理论所得出的弯曲刚度,提出一种用于计算无限大多层层合板结构隔声量的理论方法——等效薄板法,并分别计算三层、四层和五层层合板的隔声量,通过与统计能量法仿真结果进行比较,表明等效薄板法在质量控制...     

Residual Stiffness of Cracked Cross-Ply Composite Laminates Under Multi-Axial In-plane Loading

In this paper, the Equivalent Constraint Model (ECM) together with a 2-D shear lag stress analysis approach is applied to predict residual stiffness properties of polymer and ceramic matrix [0/90 _n /0] cross-ply laminates subjected to in-plane biaxial loading and damaged by transverse and longitudinal matrix cracks. It is found that the longitudinal Young’s modulus, shear modulus and major Poisson’s ratio undergo large degradation as the matrix crack density increases, with Poisson’s ratio appearing to be the most affected by transverse cracking. In cross-ply laminates with thick 90° layer strip-shaped delaminations begin to initiate and grow from the tips of matrix cracks at the 0°/90° interface. These delaminations contribute to further stiffness degradation of such laminates, and hence have to be taken into account in failure analysis models. The thickness of the 90° layer plays an important role; the thicker the 90° layer, the bigger stiffness reduction suggesting a size (volume) effect at ply level. In SiC/CAS cross-ply laminates reduction in the longitudinal modulus occurs mainly due to transverse cracks, while the shear modulus appears to be the most affected by the presence of longitudinal cracks. The shear modulus reduction ratio predicted previously by a semi-empirical formula is, in the most of cases, within 10% of the current ECM/2-D shear lag approach value. In some cases, though, the error of the semi-empirical finite element expression can be as big as 20% since it fails to capture damage mode interaction.     

The vibration and stability of symmetrically-laminated composite rectangular plates subjected to in-plane stresses

Consideration is given to the twin problems of the elastic buckling of rectangular, symmetrically-laminated composite plates and of the vibration in the presence of applied in-plane stress of such laminates. First-order shear deformation plate theory provides the mathematical model of plate behaviour and the Rayleigh-Ritz and finite strip methods are used to generate numerical results for laminates of thin and moderately thick geometry, with various combinations of standard plate edge conditions. The applied stresses include uniform shear stress as well as direct stresses, and anisotropic material properties can be included. The presented results demonstrate the accuracy of the numerical methods and highlight the very significant influence that transverse shear and related thickness effects can have in the subject problems.     

基于三维等效弹性模量的复合材料中厚层合板稳定性分析

通过对复合材料层合板刚度矩阵的转换,将中厚板等效为3D各向异性板,并将得到的等效弹性模量运用到有限元模型中,对轴压载荷作用下的中厚层合板进行稳定性分析。结果表明：有限元模拟得到的屈曲载荷与工程经验公式得到的屈曲载荷相差很小,简支情况下相差5.86%,固支情况下相差6.47%。证明这种等效方法是可行的,且可以提高复合材料中厚板的三维建模效率。     

Effects of composite adherend properties on stresses in double lap bonded joints

The effects of composite layer stiffness, thickness and ply orientations on stresses in the adhesive layer of a double lap bonded joint are investigated using three-dimensional finite element analysis code ABAQUS. A special 3-layer modelling technique is used in the finite element analysis. The non-linear behaviour of adhesive is also considered. Six composite laminates with different ply orientations are used in the lap-joint analysis. The composite materials considered in the analysis are – carbon epoxy, boron epoxy, T300/934 graphite-epoxy, and aramid epoxy. The analysis results indicate that the maximum stress in the adhesive can be significantly reduced by changing the stiffness and fibre orientations in the composite layer. Also, the use of hybrid composite (changing the nature of the fibres in two layers which are near the adhesive layer) results in reducing adhesive shear stresses.     

Finite rotation exact geometry solid-shell element for laminated composite structures through extended SaS formulation and 3D analytical integration

A nonlinear exact geometry hybrid-mixed four-node solid-shell element using the sampling surfaces (SaS) formulation is developed for the analysis of the second Piola-Kirchhoff stress that extends the authors' finite element (Int J Numer Methods Eng. 2019;117:498-522) to laminated composite shells. The SaS formulation is based on choosing inside the layers the arbitrary number of SaS parallel to the middle surface and located at Chebyshev polynomial nodes in order to introduce the displacements of these surfaces as basic shell unknowns. The external surfaces and interfaces are also included into a set of SaS. The proposed hybrid-mixed solid-shell element is based on the Hu-Washizu variational principle and is completely free of shear and membrane locking. The tangent stiffness matrix is evaluated by efficient three-dimensional (3D) analytical integration. As a result, the developed exact geometry solid-shell element exhibits a superior performance in the case of coarse meshes and allows the use of load increments, which are much larger than possible with existing displacement-based solid-shell elements. It could be useful for the 3D stress analysis of thick and thin doubly curved laminated composite shells because the SaS formulation gives the possibility to obtain the 3D solutions with a prescribed accuracy.     

A new finite element scheme for instability analysis of thin shells

This paper describes a new finite element scheme for the analysis of instability phenomena of arbitrary thin shells. A computationally efficient procedure is proposed for calculating the non-linear stiffness and tangential stiffness matrices for a doubly-curved quadrilateral element defined by co-ordinate lines. The essential feature is the explicit addition of the non-linear terms into the rigid-body motion of the element. Thus the non-linear and tangential element stiffness matrices can easily be generated by transforming the generalized element stiffness matrix for linear analysis, and the non-linear terms of these matrices are separated into a number of component terms multiplied by the rigid-body rotations. These component terms can be stored permanently and used to calculate efficiently the non-linear and tangential stiffness matrices at each iteration. Illustrative examples are presented which confirm the validity of the present approach in the analysis of instability phenomena of thin plates and shells.     

带有加强筋的Mindlin板动态刚度阵法

以加筋中厚矩形板为研究对象，推导了加筋板的动态刚度阵，为动态刚度阵法提供一种新单元。板的运动微分方程由Mindlin厚板理论给出，同时还考虑了板平面内的振动。对于板上加强筋的处理，则通过Hamilton原理对板的运动方程作相应的修正，最终得到加筋板的运动微分方程。而方程的解析解直接用于单元刚度阵的推导，所得加筋板单元的动态刚度阵结合传统有限元方法的单元组装和求解方法即可用于计算整个结构的动力响应。此外，还给出了加筋板单元的均方响应计算公式，可用来计算结构的平均振动能量。最后通过数值算例验证本文方法，计算结果与传统有限元方法进行分析比较。     

A family of simple and robust finite elements for linear and geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated composite plates

A family of simple, displacement-based and shear-flexible triangular and quadrilateral flat plate/shell elements for linear and geometrically nonlinear analysis of thin to moderately thick laminate composite plates are introduced and summarized in this paper.

The developed elements are based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) and von-Karman’s large deflection theory, and total Lagrangian approach is employed to formulate the element for geometrically nonlinear analysis. The deflection and rotation functions of the element boundary are obtained from Timoshenko’s laminated composite beam functions, thus convergence can be ensured theoretically for very thin laminates and shear-locking problem is avoided naturally.

The flat triangular plate/shell element is of 3-node, 18-degree-of-freedom, and the plane displacement interpolation functions of the Allman’s triangular membrane element with drilling degrees of freedom are taken as the in-plane displacements of the element. The flat quadrilateral plate/shell element is of 4-node, 24-degree-of-freedom, and the linear displacement interpolation functions of a quadrilateral plane element with drilling degrees of freedom are taken as the in-plane displacements.

The developed elements are simple in formulation, free from shear-locking, and include conventional engineering degrees of freedom. Numerical examples demonstrate that the elements are convergent, not sensitive to mesh distortion, accurate and efficient for linear and geometric nonlinear analysis of thin to moderately thick laminates.