Nonlinear dynamic analysis of unsymmetric layered composite shells

The concentration of the present study is on the transient dynamic analysis of composite shells given geometric nonlinearity. For this purpose, use is made of a 12-parameter shell model suited for thick composite structures and then strains and stresses are extracted. The so-called weak form is constructed based on the Hamilton's principle and for gaining the solution to the dynamic problem, the nonlinear finite element method, the total Lagrangian scheme, as well as the composite time integration approach are employed. To overcome the nu-merical anomalies pertaining to the four-node shell element, transverse shear, membrane and curvatures -thickness locking, appropriate approaches are taken into account. Finally, some problems are solved to eval-uate the newly developed shell element and a comparison with the data available in the literature is made.

Automated summary

The current study focuses on the transient dynamic analysis of composite shells with geometric nonlinearity. A 12-parameter shell model suitable for thick composite structures is used to extract strains and stresses. The weak form is constructed based on Hamilton's principle, and the nonlinear finite element method, total Lagrangian scheme, and composite time integration approach are employed to solve the dynamic problem. Approaches are taken to overcome numerical anomalies related to the four-node shell element, such as transverse shear, membrane, and curvatures-thickness locking. Several problems are solved to assess the newly developed shell element, comparing it with available literature data.