Constitutive Modeling of Thin-Walled Composite Structures Using Mechanics of Structure Genome

Ankit Deo, Purdue University

Abstract

Quick and accurate predictions of equivalent properties for thin-walled composite structures are required in the preliminary design process. Existing literature provides analytical solutions to some structures but is limited to particular cases. No unified approach exists to tackle homogenization of thin-walled structures such as beams, plates, or three-dimensional structures using the thin-walled approximation. In this work, a unified approach is proposed to obtain equivalent properties for beams, plates, and three-dimensional structures for thin-walled composite structures using mechanics of structure genome. The adopted homogenization technique interprets the unit cell associated with the composite structures as an assembly of plates, and the overall strain energy density of the unit cell as a summation of the plate strain energies of these individual plates. The variational asymptotic method is then applied to drop all higher-order terms and the remaining energy is minimized with respect to the unknown fluctuating functions. This has been done by discretizing the two-dimensional unit cell into one-dimensional frame elements in a finite element description. This allows the handling of structures with different levels of complexities and internal geometry within a general framework. Comparisons have been made with other works to show the advantages which the proposed model offers over other methods.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Yu, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Energy|Mechanics|Applied Mathematics|Genetics|Materials science|Mathematics

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