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We present a computational study that develops isogeometric analysis based on higher-order smooth NURBS basis functions for the analysis of in-plane laminated composites. Focusing on the stress, vibration and stability analysis of angle-ply and cross-ply 2D structures, we compare the convergence of the strain energy error and selected stress components, eigen-frequencies and buckling loads according to overkill solutions. Our results clearly demonstrate that for in-plane laminated composite structures, isogeometric analysis is able to provide the same accuracy at a significantly reduced number of degrees of freedom with respect to standard finite elements. In particular, we observe that the smoothness of spline basis functions enables high-quality stress solutions, which are superior to the ones obtained with conventional finite elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasi-three-dimensional (3D) stability and free vibration analyses of bi-axially loaded, simply-supported, sandwich piezoelectric plates with an embedded either a functionally graded (FG) carbon nanotube-reinforced composite (CNTRC) core or a multilayered fiber-reinforced composite (FRC) one are presented. Three different distributions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) through the thickness of the CNTRC core, i.e. uniformly distributed and FG V-, rhombus- and X-type variations, are considered, and the effective material properties of the CNTRC core are estimated using the rule of mixtures. The Pagano method, which is conventionally used for the analysis of multilayered FRC plates, is modified to be feasible for the study of sandwich hybrid CNTRC and piezoelectric ones, in which Reissner mixed variational theorem, the successive approximation and transfer matrix methods, and the transformed real-valued solutions of the system equations are used. The modified Pagano solutions for the stability and free vibration of multilayered hybrid FRC and piezoelectric plates are in excellent agreement with the exact 3D ones available in the literature, and those for sandwich hybrid CNTRC and piezoelectric plates may be used as the benchmark solutions to assess the ones obtained by using various 2D theories and numerical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developed herein are the scaling laws for physical modeling of anti-symmetric cross-ply laminated circular cylindrical shells for buckling and free vibration experiments. In the absence of experimental data, the validity of the scaling laws is verified by numerical experiments. This is accomplished by calculating theoretically the buckling loads and fundamental frequencies of the model and substituting into the scaling laws to obtain the corresponding values of the prototype. The predicted values of the prototype from the scaling laws are then compared with existing closed-form solutions. Examples for the complete similitude cases with various stacking sequences, number of plies, and length-to-radius ratios show exact agreement. The derived relationships between the model and prototype will greatly facilitate and reduce the need for costly experiments. In reality, either due to the complexity of the scaling laws or to economize experimental cost and time, it may not be feasible to construct the model to fulfil the scaling laws completely. Thus, several possible models of partial similitude are investigated numerically. These include models with distortion in laminated material properties, stacking sequences and number of plies. Model with distortion in material properties yields a high percentage of discrepancy and is not recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]