Session: 01-04-01: Advances in Aerospace Structures

Paper Number: 108484

108484 - Hierarchical Modelling of Variable Stiffness Composite Plates Through Carrera’s Unified Formulation 

Variable Stiffness Composites (VSCs) have been lately proposed as a promising alternative to classical straight fibres composites where the variation of fibres orientation angle within the plane of the structure allows for a more ambitious design of composite structures and consequent performances. This new class of materials, nevertheless calls for new modelling techniques due to a higher complexity in their analysis related to an increased amount of design variables that is usually considered.

In order to overcome these difficulties, Carrera's Unified Formulation has been used in previous works investigating buckling, vibrational and stress analyses on VSCs. Usually, one-dimensional Carrera's Unified Formulation beam models are used, while two-dimensional plate models are obtained as a particular case of shells by considering a null curvature. In most cases, a linear law is considered to describe the variation of fibres orientation in the main plane of the structure.

The purpose of this article is developing a Carrera’s Unified Formulation two-dimensional plate finite element family for the mechanical analysis of composite laminated plate structures with curvilinear fibres using, besides the Principle of Virtual Displacements (PVD), Reissner's Mixed Variational Theorem (RMVT).

The outcomes of the proposed approach when investigating VSC plates is compared with the results present in the literature or obtained via commercial software tools in order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed models.

Presenting Author: Gaetano Giunta Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

Presenting Author Biography: G. Giunta is a researcher working at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and he holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, since 2008. His research is mainly devoted to structural modelling of beams, plates and shells in the case of structures made of metallic, composite and functionally graded materials. He also investigates multi-fields and multi-scale problems. The research work has been carried out in the framework of several national and international project granted by funding agencies and in collaboration with industries.

Authors:

Domenico Andrea Iannotta Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
Gaetano Giunta Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
Marco Montemurro École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers, Laboratoire I2M - Département IMC - Site ENSAM