General boundary conditions implementation for the static analysis of anisotropic doubly-curved shells resting on a Winkler foundation

Abstract

In the present work an Equivalent Single Layer (ESL) formulation is proposed for the static analysis of doubly-curved anisotropic structures of arbitrary geometry and variable stiffness resting on a Winkler elastic foundation. In-plane and out-of-plane general distributions of linear elastic springs are provided for the implementation of general external constraints along the edges of the structure. The structure is geometrically described accounting for the principal curvatures of the shell object of analysis. A generalized set of blending functions based on Non-Uniform Rational Basis Spline (NURBS) curves is adopted so that arbitrary shaped structures can be modelled with the same approach. The fundamental governing equations are obtained in terms of displacement field unknowns, which has been effectively described accounting for a unified formulation based on the minimum potential energy principle. General anisotropic lamination schemes are considered, setting a general orientation of each lamina, as well as all possible material symmetries. The numerical implementation is performed by means of the Generalized Differential Quadrature (GDQ) method, thus allowing a strong formulation of the structural problem. A series of validation examples is performed on shells with zero, single and double curvatures in which the static structural response provided with the proposed formulation has been compared to that obtained from a refined three-dimensional finite element model, showing a great accordance between these different approaches. The research shows that the employment of higher order theories, together with the GDQ method, allows to obtain very accurate results with a reduced computational cost, compared to finite element simulations.