A NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY ON THE NONLINEAR BEHAVIOR OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE STRUCTURAL COMPONENTS

Abstract

Nonlinear behavior of laminated composite plates and shells is studied. In the analysis, material nonlinearity due to the matrix degradation at the initial failure is considered along with the geometrical nonlinearity in the deformation process. An effective way of accounting the damage of the material due to initial failure is incorporated into a finite element analysis of the nonlinear behavior of the structural members. Experimental study is done on the filament-wound cylinders and laminated plates. The results are compared with the ones from the numerical analysis.