ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES WITH CURVATURE UNDER TEMPERATURE ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Composite structures are frequently exposed to environments with change in temperatures during their service life. The thermal behaviours of the laminated composite structures are more pronounced than that of the structures made of isotropic materials. For the structures under thermal environment, extensive studies have been conducted to investigate the induced thermal stresses and deformation of composite laminated plates by linear/non-linear analysis and composite structures by finite element analysis.

The main focus of this study is concentrated on development of an analytical method for analyzing composite thin shells and/or moderate curved beam structures under temperature environment. This includes the derivation of closed form expression for evaluating deformation/stresses of composite laminates and curved beams using a modified Classical Lamination Plate Theory with curvature, respectively. The present results are validated by 2D and 3D finite element models. Parametric study was done on the thermal stresses of curved beams with varying boundary conditions, ply stacking sequence, radius of beam curvature under various temperatures