In this work an attempt has been made to develop theories for finite element static and dynamic stress analysis tailored for use with composite layered plates and shells in this way it was hoped to provide accurate values of the stresses particularly transverse shear stresses through the thickness, and to perform accurate natural frequency analysis by including non-linear effects such as centrifugal stiffening. Initial derivations were based upon first order facet shell element analysis and first order curved shell element analysis. Subsequently, derivations were produced for higher order element analysis. A programming package has been developed based upon the above derivations, and containing a banded solver as well as a frontal solver, capable of analysing structures build up from uniform or variable thickness layers and with a multiple number of layers having constant or variable dimension. Results obtained with the aid of the present package have been compared with results derived from experimental work as well as with results derived from available analytical solutions. Investigations have been carried out for existing compressor blades, made of isotropic material and layered composite material, respectively. The results obtained from the package have been compared with available experimental results produced by RR or carried out at Cranfield. It has been shown that the above mentioned derivations produce comparable results and the package has proved to be reliable and accurate.

Over the past decade or so much has been written on the various attempts to produce efficient, accurate and reliable Mindlin plate finite elements. In the late sixties, a degenerated, Mindlin-type, curved shell element was developed and subsequently many improvements in such elements have been made. Reliability and efficiency in use has always been a major objective. Degenerated shell elements have enjoyed widespread popularity despite certain potential defects, including shear and membrane lock ing behaviour and spurious mechanisms. After introducing the basic foundations of Mindlin-type elements, this book describes these defects and also gives the reasons for their occurrence. Furthermore, the author proposes an approach to overcome these defects. A series of linear benchmark tests are proposed to illustrate the performance of the assumed strain element formulations. The formula tions and applications for material non-linearity are also presented. Both isotropic and anisotropic material models are included together with the results for both static and transient dynamic analyses. Two associated programs are fully documented and provided on floppy discs with test examples. Source codes for the two associated programs are provided: one is for static analysis and the other for dynamic analysis, and the programs can be compiled and run on either a mini or mainframe coniputer via a terminal. The author hopes that this book may provide further impetus in the important research area of plate and shell element technology.

Thermal Stress Analysis of Composite Beams, Plates and Shells: Computational Modelling and Applications presents classic and advanced thermal stress topics in a cutting-edge review of this critical area, tackling subjects that have little coverage in existing resources. It includes discussions of complex problems, such as multi-layered cases using modern advanced computational and vibrational methods. Authors Carrera and Fazzolari begin with a review of the fundamentals of thermoelasticity and thermal stress analysis relating to advanced structures and the basic mechanics of beams, plates, and shells, making the book a self-contained reference. More challenging topics are then addressed, including anisotropic thermal stress structures, static and dynamic responses of coupled and uncoupled thermoelastic problems, thermal buckling, and post-buckling behavior of thermally loaded structures, and thermal effects on panel flutter phenomena, amongst others. - Provides an overview of critical thermal stress theory and its relation to beams, plates, and shells, from classical concepts to the latest advanced theories - Appeals to those studying thermoelasticity, thermoelastics, stress analysis, multilayered structures, computational methods, buckling, static response, and dynamic response - Includes the authors' unified formulation (UF) theory, along with cutting-edge topics that receive little coverage in other references - Covers metallic and composite structures, including a complete analysis and sample problems of layered structures, considering both mesh and meshless methods - Presents a valuable resource for those working on thermal stress problems in mechanical, civil, and aerospace engineering settings

This report presents the results of an investigation into the formulation and application of assumed-stress hybrid finite-elements for bending of multilayer laminated plates and shells. Two families of hybrid-stress-based multilayer plate elements are considered; these elements are denoted as thick plate and moderately-thick plate elements. In the development of the thick plate elements, transverse shear deformation effects are included by allowing lines normal to the plate midsurface in the undeformed state to be piecewise linear from layer to layer in the deformed state. Transverse shear deformation effects are included in an average sense in the moderately-thick plate element family by assuming that straight lines normal to the plate midsurface prior to deformation remain straight but not necessarily normal to the plate midsurface after deformation. Comparison of the results obtained by using the thick plate and moderately-thick plate elements with independent analytical results shows that the moderately-thick plate elements are more efficient and practical for the analysis of multilayer structures having a large number of elastically dissimilar layers.

The vibrational characteristics and mechanical properties of shell structures are discussed. The subjects presented are: (1) fundamental equations of thin shell theory, (2) characteristics of thin circular cylindrical shells, (3) complicating effects in circular cylindrical shells, (4) noncircular cylindrical shell properties, (5) characteristics of spherical shells, and (6) solution of three-dimensional equations of motion for cylinders.

Vibrations drive many engineering designs in today's engineering environment. There has been an enormous amount of research into this area of research over the last decade. This book documents some of the latest research in the field of vibration of composite shells and plates filling a much-needed gap in the market. Laminated composite shells have many engineering applications including aerospace, mechanical, marine and automotive engineering. This book makes an ideal reference for researchers and practicing engineers alike. - The first book of its kind - Documents 10 years of research in the field of composite shells - Many Engineering applications

In this thesis, a new concept of finite strip elements is introduced. Lagrangian, Hermitian and spline-type interpolations have been used independently along the two axes of the plate mid-plane. Different plate-bending theories; Mindlin, Reissner and Kirchhoff theories have been applied in the derivations of the new finitestrip elements, for isotropic and composite materials. The new elements have also been extended to work as faceted shell elements for the analysis of cylindrical shells, folded plates and stiffened plates. An efficient modular programming package based on those elements was designed, and it is capable of performing linear and non-linear stress analysis, buckling analysis and natural frequency analysis. The modular package, which was coded in FORTRAN has different solvers and a built-in mesh generator for different types of plate structures. A number of case studies have been employed for the validation of the package and testing its different capabilities. The package has proved to be an efficient tool for numerical modelling of plates, cylindrical shells, folded plates and stiffened plates made of isotropic and composite layered materials.