Dynamics of Geometrically Exact Sandwich Beams/1-D Plates: Computational Aspects

Abstract

Abstract A Galerkin projection of the equation of motion of geometrically-exact sandwich beams, applicable to 1-D plates, formulated in Vu-Quoc & Ebcioğlu [1995] is presented here. The beam could take any arbitrary initial position in the 2-D space. Each layer of the beam could have different material constants with no restriction on the mass distribution and layer thickness; further, each layer could take on different length, thus allows the modeling of multilayer structures with ply drop-off. Finite rotations and shear deformation are accommodated for in each layer. The deformed cross section of the beam is continuous, piecewise linear. The continuity of displacement across the interlayer boundaries is exactly enforced. Extensive numerical examples including sandwich structures with ply drop-off, free flying and spin up maneuver of sandwich beams are presented to illustrate the applicability and versatility of the proposed formulation.