A Numerical Investigation on Stress Modal Analysis of Composite Laminated Thin Plates

Because of the light weight and high strength, composite laminates have many advantages in aircraft structures; however, they are frequently subjected to severe dynamic loadings during flight. To understand the dynamic properties of composite laminated thin plates at the stress scale, this paper stu...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yadong Zhou, Youchao Sun, Weili Zeng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
Series:Aerospace
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/8/3/63
Description
Summary:Because of the light weight and high strength, composite laminates have many advantages in aircraft structures; however, they are frequently subjected to severe dynamic loadings during flight. To understand the dynamic properties of composite laminated thin plates at the stress scale, this paper studies the stress modal analysis (SMA) of composite laminated thin plates by finite element method (FEM). Firstly, the basic theory on SMA of composite laminates was given from the classical displacement modal analysis. Secondly, a square laminated thin plate was numerically studied to obtain some distribution laws of the stress mode shapes (SMSs) from the layup and stress component perspectives. Then, based on the characteristics of SMSs in different plies, a modified layup configuration was conducted for possible lower magnitude and more uniform distributions of SMSs. Results indicate that ±45° layups can improve the performance of SMSs of the square plate, without excessively decreasing the modal frequencies. Such fact manifests that ±45° layups are critically vital for the dynamic stress reduction of the square composite laminated plates. Modal participation factor and strain energy were evaluated to assist the determination of critical modes. Lastly, the aspect ratio of the composite plate on layup design was considered. Numerical investigation in this study can serve as a preliminary step of SMSs perspective for the analysis and optimization of dynamic composite laminates.
ISSN:2226-4310