A dynamic stiffness method for analysis of thermal effect on vibration and buckling of a laminated composite beam

Abstract

Thermal effects on vibration and buckling behaviors of generally layered composite beams with arbitrary boundary conditions are dealt with in this paper. The composite beam is modeled using third-order shear deformation beam theory in which the Poisson effect is incorporated. A constant temperature change through the beam thickness is assumed. An exact dynamic stiffness matrix is formulated by directly solving the differential equations of motion governing the natural vibration of the composite beams subjected to uniform temperature changes along the beam thickness. Application of the derived dynamic stiffness matrix together with the Wittrick–Williams algorithm to compute the natural frequencies and buckling temperature changes of two particular composite beams is discussed. The correctness and accuracy of the derived dynamic stiffness matrix is evaluated by comparing the present results with the available solutions in literature. The influences of Poisson effect, boundary condition, temperature change, thermal expansion coefficient and material anisotropy on the natural frequencies of the composite beams are studied.