Abstract
Cutouts are often provided in composite structural components for practical reasons. For instance, aircraft components such as wingspar, fuselage and ribs are provided with cutouts for access, inspection, fuel lines and electric lines or to reduce the overall weight. This paper addresses the effect of boundary condition on buckling and postbuckling responses, failure loads, and failure characteristics of composite laminate with various shaped cutouts (i.e., circular, square, diamond, elliptical-vertical and elliptical-horizontal) and having different lay-ups under in-plane shear (positive and negative) load, using finite-element method. The FEM formulation is based on the first order shear deformation theory in conjunction with geometric nonlinearity using von Karman’s assumptions. The 3-D Tsai-Hill criterion is used to predict the failure of a lamina while the onset of delamination is predicted by the interlaminar failure criterion. It is observed that the effect of boundary condition on buckling, first-ply failure and ultimate failure loads of a quasi-isotropic laminate with cutout is more for positive shear load than that for the negative shear load for almost all cutout shapes. It is also noted that under in-plane shear loads postbuckling stiffness of (0/90)4s laminate with circular cutout is maximum, while it is minimum for (45/—45)4s laminate with circular cutout, irrespective of boundary conditions.
Highlights
Thin composite laminated panels are used in almost all modern advanced engineering applications such as spacecraft, high speed aircrafts, naval vessels and automobiles because of their superior specific properties as compared to their metallic counterparts
This paper addresses the effect of boundary condition on buckling and postbuckling responses, failure loads, and failure characteristics of composite laminate with various shaped cutouts and having different lay-ups under in-plane shear load, using finite-element method
It is observed that the effect of boundary condition on buckling, first-ply failure and ultimate failure loads of a quasi-isotropic laminate with cutout is more for positive shear load than that for the negative shear load for almost all cutout shapes
Summary
Thin composite laminated panels are used in almost all modern advanced engineering applications such as spacecraft, high speed aircrafts, naval vessels and automobiles because of their superior specific properties (i.e., stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios) as compared to their metallic counterparts. Cutouts in wing spars and cover panels of commercial transport wings and military fighter wings are provided to form ports for mechanical and electrical systems, damage inspection, fuel lines, and to reduce the overall weight of the composite structure The presence of these cutouts forms free edges in the composite laminates under various loading and boundary conditions, which in turn cause high interlaminar stresses [1] leading to loss of stiffness and premature failure of la-. Laminate with Various Shaped Cutouts under In-Plane Shear are available on buckling and postbuckling behavior of laminated composite panels with cutouts under shear loads for different boundary conditions These studies are primarily for laminates with central circular cutouts. For various boundary conditions, the effect of the composite lay-up on buckling and postbuckling characteristics of the laminate with a circular cutout is studied by taking three most practical laminate configurations, namely, quasi-isotropic [i.e., (+45/−45/0/90)2s], angle-ply [i.e., (45/−45)4s], and cross-ply [i.e., (0/90)4s]
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