Bending Analysis of Molded Composite Grating Panels: Theoretical and Experimental Investigations

Abstract

Proposing a theoretical procedure, the lattice structure of a composite grating is replaced with an equivalent orthotropic homogenous plate. Accordingly, the bending analysis of molded grating panels is facilitated using plate-bending theory as a manual calculation. The homogenization method establishes the required analytical relations for estimating effective material properties and effective thickness of the equivalent solid panel. The bending tests are performed on manufactured molded composite gratings under concentrated and distributed loadings. The performed test is also numerically simulated using finite element method. The results of developed theoretical modeling and finite element analysis are compared with experimental observations. A very good agreement is observed between the conducted experiments and estimated results through either numerical or theoretical modeling. Moreover, the performance of the theoretical modeling is also examined for other types of loadings and constraints and the outputs of the developed modeling are compared with available experimental data in open literature. The promising ability of proposed modeling procedure in replacing grating panels with equivalent solid plate is demonstrated for different meshes. This capability enables the engineers to perform bending analysis of grating panels with different meshes very easily and rapidly.