• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.10-15
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• 2006

The optimal design for stiffened laminated composite cylindrical panels under axial compression was studied using linear and nonlinear deformation theories by finite difference energy methods. Various panel structures was made from Carbon/Epoxy USN125 prepreg and considered 3 types stiffeners. Optimal design analyses of panel structure are carried out by the nonlinear search optimizer, ADS. This optimal design results are compared to the FEM result using ANSYS.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.163-170
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• 1997

The present paper describes an investigation into the application of the genetic algorithm(GA) in the optimization of structural design. Stochastic processes generate an initial population of designs and then apply principles of natural selection/survival of the fittest to improve the designs. The five test functions are used to verify the robustness and reliability of GA, and as a numerical example, minimum weight of a cantilever composite laminated beam with a mix of continuous, integer and discrete design variables is obtained by using GA with exterior penalty function method. The design problem has constraints on strength, displacements, and natural frequencies, and is formulated to a multidimensional nonlinear form. From the results, it is found that the GA search technique is very effective at finding the good optimum solution as well as has higher robustness.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.825-834
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• 2014

This manuscript presents an experimental investigation on the effect of Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) addition on the tensile, flexural and impact properties of woven Kevlar fabric reinforced epoxy composites. MWCNTs were dispersed in the epoxy resin by sonication technique and the samples were fabricated by hand layup laminating procedure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to characterize the microstructure of produced samples. The effects of adding small amounts (${\leq}1%$) of MWCNT on the tensile, flexural and impact (Izod) behaviors of laminated composites were analyzed. Results revealed that MWCNTs enhanced the Young's modulus up to 20%, bending modulus up to 40%, and impact strength up to 45% in comparison with woven Kevlar fabric/epoxy composites. It was found that the maximum improvements in mechanical properties were happened for 0.5 wt.% MWCNT.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.203-220
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• 2013

The study of the tensile strength of composite materials is far more complex than analysis of the properties of elasticity and plasticity. Indeed, during mechanical loading, micro-cracks in the matrix, the fibers break, debonding of the interfaces are created. The failure process of composites is of great diversity and cannot be described if even we know: the strength criterion of each individual component, the state of stress and strain in the material, the propagation phenomena cracks in the structure and nature of the interface between the matrix and the reinforcement. This information is only partially known and the obtained by the analysis of a stress limit beyond which there is destruction of the material is almost impossible. To partially process the issue, a solution lies in a mesoscopic approach of seeking a law to locate the ultimate strength of the material for a plane stress state. Tests on rectangular plates in bending PEEK/APC2 and T300/914 three were made and this in order to validate our approach, the calculation has been implemented in a nonlinear finite element code (Castem 2000), in order to make comparison with the numerical results. The results show good agreement between numerical simulation and the two materials; however, it would be interesting to consider other phenomena in the criterion.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.75-89
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• 2020

The current paper illustrates the effect of in-plane varying compressive force on critical buckling loads and buckling modes of sandwich composite laminated beam rested on elastic foundation. To generalize a proposed model, unified higher order shear deformation beam theories are exploited through analysis; those satisfy the parabolic variation of shear across the thickness. Therefore, there is no need for shear correction factor. Winkler and Pasternak elastic foundations are presented to consider the effect of any elastic medium surrounding beam structure. The Hamilton's principle is proposed to derive the equilibrium equations of unified sandwich composite laminated beams. Differential quadrature numerical method (DQNM) is used to discretize the differential equilibrium equations in spatial direction. After that, eigenvalue problem is solved to obtain the buckling loads and associated mode shapes. The proposed model is validated with previous published works and good matching is observed. The numerical results are carried out to show effects of axial load functions, lamination thicknesses, orthotropy and elastic foundation constants on the buckling loads and mode shapes of sandwich composite beam. This model is important in designing of aircrafts and ships when non-uniform compressive load and shear loading is dominated.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.363-368
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• 2016

This study performed a nonlinear finite element crash analysis of guardrail structures using supports made of composite materials. In this study, we used a new [0/90/90/0] laminated Boron fiber composite for resisting the crash effects. Based on the improved ground-structure interaction model, appropriate ground properties to the support were determined. In particular, the complex crash mechanism of guardrails was studied using various parameters. The parametric studies are focused on the various effects of car crash on the structural performance and thickness of supports. The numerical results for various parameters are verified by comparing those using existing steel materials.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.229-236
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• 2004

A new three-node triangular shell element based on higher order zig-zag theory is developed for laminated composite shells with multiple delaminations. The present higher order zig-zag shell theory is described in a general curvilinear coordinate system and in general tensor notation. All the complicated curvatures of surface including twisting curvatures can be described in an exact manner in the present shell element because this element is based on geometrically exact surface representation. The displacement field of the proposed finite element includes slope of deflection. which requires continuity between element interfaces. Thus the nonconforming shape function of Specht's three-node triangular plate bending element is employed to interpolate out-of-plane displacement. The present element passes the bending and twisting patch tests in flat surface configurations. The developed element is evaluated through the buckling problems of composite cylindrical shells with multiple delaminations. Through the numerical examples it is demonstrated that the proposed shell element is efficient because it has minimal degrees of freedom per node. The accuracy of the present element is demonstrated in the prediction of buckling loads and buckling modes of shells with multiple delaminations. The present shell element should serve as a powerful tool in the prediction of buckling loads and modes of multi-layered thick laminated shell structures with arbitrary-shaped multiple delaminations.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2017

A $C^0$ FE model developed based on an efficient higher order zigzag theory is used for hygrothermal analysis of laminated composite plates. The $C^0$ FE model satisfies the inter-laminar shear stress continuity at the interfaces and zero transverse shear stress conditions at plate top and bottom. In this model the first derivatives of transverse displacement have been treated as independent variables to circumvent the problem of $C^1$ continuity associated with the above plate theory. In the present theory the above mentioned $C^0$ continuity of the present element is compensated in the stiffness matrix formulation by using penalty parameter approach. In order to avoid stress oscillations observed in the displacement based finite element, the stress field derived from temperature/moisture fields (initial strains) must be consistent with total strain field. Special steps are introduced by field consistent approach (e.g., sampling at gauss points) to compensate this problem. A nine noded $C^0$ continuous isoparametric element is used in the proposed FE model. Comparison of present numerical results with other existing solutions shows that the proposed FE model is efficient, accurate and free of locking.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.53-72
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• 2012

In this study, the physically-based failure models for matrix and fibers in compression and tension loading are introduced. For the 3D stress based fiber kinking model a modification is proposed for calculation of the fiber misalignment angle. All of these models are implemented into the finite element code by using the advantage of damage variable and the numerical results are discussed. To investigate the matrix failure model, purely in-plane transverse compression experiments are carried out on the specimens made by Glass/Epoxy to obtain the fracture surface angle and then a comparison is made with the calculated numerical results. Furthermore, shear failure of $({\pm}45)_s$ model is investigated and the obtained numerical results are discussed and compared with available experimental results. Some experiments are also carried out on the woven laminated composites to investigate the fracture pattern in the matrix failure mode and shown that the presented matrix failure model can be used for the woven composites. Finally, the obtained numerical results for stress based fiber kinking model and improved ones (strain based model) are discussed and compared with each other and with the available results. The results show that these models can predict the kink band angle approximately.