Static analysis of thin walled composite and sandwich box beam

Abstract

The static analysis of thin-walled laminated composite and sandwich box beam is presented. The one dimensional finite element method is used to predict the axial, vertical displacements and twist angle of thin walled box beam. Different types of loading such as axial, eccentric vertical tip load, and eccentric uniformly distributed load are taken. The results obtained are in good agreement with that available in literature for uniform cross-section. Numerical examples with different loading conditions, laminate stacking sequence and boundary conditions are taken into consideration. The effects of taper ratio along with different stacking sequence on flexural-torsional behaviour are also studied. The results show that with decrease in taper ratio, axial, flexural-torsional response increases for individual stacking sequence, however axial, flexural-torsional response decreases by changing ply orientation. Effect of core thickness, different stacking sequence in face sheet along with different types of loading and boundary condition for sandwich box beam are also studied in this paper. The improvement in flexural-torsional response of thin walled box beam is also observed when CNT is reinforced in laminated composite as well as in sandwich composite.