Mechanics of shear deformable thin-walled beams made of composite materials

In this paper, a new theoretical model is developed for the generalized linear analysis of composite thin-walled beams with open or closed cross-sections. The present model incorporates, in a full form the shear deformability by means of two features. The first one may be addressed as a mechanical aspect where the effect of shear deformability due to both bending and non-uniform warping is considered. The second feature is connected with the constitutive aspects, and it contemplates the use of different hypotheses adopted in the formulation. These topics are treated in a straightforward way by means of the Linearized Principle of Virtual Works. The model is developed by employing a non-linear displacement field, whose rotations are formulated by means of the rule of semitangential transformation. This model allows studying many problems of static's, free vibrations with or without arbitrary initial stresses and linear stability of composite thin-walled beams with general cross-sections. A discussion about the constitutive equations is performed, in order to explain distinctive aspects of the effects included in the theory. This paper presents the theoretical formulation together with finite element procedures that are developed with the aim to obtain solutions to the general equations of thin-walled shear deformable composite beams. A non-locking fourteen-degree-of-freedom finite element is introduced. Numerical examples are carried out in several topics of static's, dynamics and buckling problems, focusing attention in the validation of the theory with respect to experimental data and with 2D and 3D computational approaches. Also, new parametrical studies are performed in order to show the influence of shear flexibility in the mechanics of the thin-walled composite beams as well as to illustrate the usefulness of the model.