C0 Layerwise Model with Fixed Degrees of Freedom and Variable In- and Out-of-Plane Kinematics by Strain Energy Updating Technique

• Main Authors: Ugo Icardi, Federico Sola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2015-11-01
• Series: Aerospace
• Subjects: zigzag model; fixed degrees of freedom (d.o.f.); technique for converting derivatives; stress analysis
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/2/4/637

Physically based zigzag models have the merit of giving accurate stress predictions for laminates and sandwiches keeping fixed the functional degrees of freedom, though at the expense of the introduction of their derivatives. In the present paper, a technique that enables deleting these derivatives is developed. The objective is finding a priori corrections of displacements, which make the energy of the model with all the derivatives neglected equivalent to that of its initial counterpart model containing all the derivatives. Numerical applications show that this technique can obtain accurate results, even for strongly asymmetrical lay-ups, keeping low the computational cost.