Abstract:
Fiber reinforced composites have a set of attractive material properties such as higher
tensile strength, high stiffness, corrosion resistance, and light weight which make them
suitable for a variety of structural applications. In automotive and aerospace industries
conventional materials like steel and aluminum replaced by composite materials to improve
the automobile/aircraft efficiency and to reduce fuel consumption and overall structural
weight. To employ these lightweight composite materials in to engineering applications,
these materials are to be designed in such a way that they are safe to use and this safety can
be predicted by using the finite element analysis simulations.
The main goal of this study is to investigate the static analysis of thin-walled
composite beam with stiffer box of different shapes for enhancing rigidity of thin-walled
composite beam by using finite element analysis software. The static analysis considers
three types of loads means bending, shear and torsional loads were considered. A general
numerical model applicable for thin-walled composite beam subjected to bending, shear and
torsional loads were developed. For both thin-walled composite beam fiber angle orientation
of [±30°]12, ply thickness of 0.25mm, fiber volume fraction of 65% and overall thickness
of 3mm with unidirectional carbon/epoxy composite laminate were used. The thin-walled
composite beam was considered as cantilever beam with loading conditions of bending,
shear and torsion loads with the value of 500N, 500N and 250Nm, respectively, were used
in order to deal the effects of rigidity difference on thin-walled composite beam with and
without stiffer box. For both symmetric and asymmetric thin-walled composite beam with
and without stiffer box static analysis has been done by finite element analysis software.
Simulation results shows maximum von Mises stress and resultant displacement for both
symmetric and asymmetric thin-walled composite beam without stiffer box. But, symmetric
and asymmetric thin-walled composite beam with stiffer box of different shapes subjected
to different loading conditions minimum von mise stress and resultant displacement were
obtained. Therefore, the rigidity of thin walled composite beam was enhanced by using
different stiffer box of different shapes. Finally, for thin-walled composite beam subjected
to different loading conditions suitable stiffer box shapes have been selected.
