Mechanical testing and numerical modelling of pull-wound carbon-epoxy spinnaker poles

The paper deals with experimental testing and numerical simulation of the mechanical behaviour of multi-layer cylindrical coupons, of two different diameters, made in carbon-epoxy composite. The aim of the study is to provide a simple and effective numerical model that can be used as a design tool for structural elements having analogous geometrical and manufacturing characteristics. The numerical analysis, performed in the elastic regime with a standard finite element (FE) code, was strongly correlated with the laboratory determination of fibre-volume fractions and of some elastic parameters of the material system. Other parameters, like the shear modulus values G, were in fact appropriate…

An energy residual-based approach to gradient effects within the mechanics of generalized continua

AbstractGeneralized continua exhibiting gradient effects are addressed through a method grounded on the energy residual (ER)-based gradient theory by the first author and coworkers. A main tool of this theory is the Clausius-Duhem inequality cast in a form differing from the classical one only by a nonstandard extra term, the (nonlocality) ER, required to satisfy the insulation condition (its global value has to vanish or to take a known value). The ER carries in the nonlocality features of the mechanical problem through a strain-like rate field, being the specific nonlocality source, and a concomitant higher-order long-range stress (or microstress) field. The thermodynamic restrictions on …

A STRAIN-DIFFERENCE BASED NONLOCAL ELASTICITY THEORY FOR SMALL-SCALE SHEAR-DEFORMABLE BEAMS WITH PARAMETRIC WARPING

A strain-difference-based nonlocal elasticity model

Abstract A two-component local/nonlocal constitutive model for (macroscopically) inhomogeneous linear elastic materials (but constant internal length) is proposed, in which the stress is the sum of the local stress and a nonlocal-type stress expressed in terms of the strain difference field, hence identically vanishing in the case of uniform strain. Attention is focused upon the particular case of piecewise homogeneous material. The proposed model is thermodynamically consistent with a suitable free energy potential. It constitutes an improved form of the Vermeer and Brinkgreve [A new effective nonlocal strain measure for softening plasticity. In: Chambon, R., Desrues, J., Vardulakis, I. (E…

Integral and differential approaches to Eringen's nonlocal elasticity models accounting for boundary effects with applications to beams in bending

Size effects of small-scale beams in bending addressed with a strain-difference based nonlocal elasticity theory

Abstract A strain-difference based nonlocal elasticity model devised by the authors elsewhere (Polizzotto et al., Int. J. Solids Struct. 25 (2006) 308–333) is applied to small-scale homogeneous beam models in bending under static loads in the purpose to describe the inherent size effects. With this theory —belonging to the strain-integral nonlocal model family, but exempt from anomalies typical of the Eringen nonlocal theory— the relevant beam problem is reduced to a set of three mutually independent Fredholm integral equations of the second kind (each independent of the beam’s ordinary boundary conditions, only one depends on the given load), which can be routinely solved numerically. Appl…

Multivariate stochastic wave generation

Abstract In this paper, for the case of the fluid particle velocity, a procedure that substantially reduces the computational effort to generate a multivariate stochastic process is proposed. It is shown that, for a fully coherent wave field, it is possible to decompose the Power Spectral Density (PSD) matrix into the eigenvectors of the matrix itself. This leads to generate each field's process as independent, and the time generation increases linearly with the processes' number in the field. A numerical example to evaluate the statistical properties, in terms of correlation and cross-correlation functions, of the processes is also presented.

Numerical simulations of the mechanical characteristics of glass fibre reinforced C-profiles

A mechanical characterisation analysis on pultruded glass fibre reinforced C-shaped profiles, developed as modular construction elements to assemble fastening systems, such as doors, window frames and shutters is presented. The key idea is to perform the analysis, and all the related identification procedures of the material parameters, via a coupled approach, based on a limited number of standard laboratory tests and on the numerical finite element simulations of the same tests. The proposed approach allows one to identify all those material parameters which are difficult to detect, by means of simple laboratory experiments on specimens that are extracted from commercial products. It also …

Shear Effects in Elastic Nanobeams

Small-scale, shear deformable nanobeams, subjected to quasi-static loads, are analyzed by a nonlocal (integral) elasticity model with the main goal to evaluate the influence of shear deformation on size effects. To this aim a warping parametric model is considered in order to obtain a continuous family of shear deformable beam models which span from the Euler-Bernoulli to the Thimoshenko beam model, passing from the Reddy model. The strain difference based nonlocal elasticity theory is applied under the hypotheses of small displacements and isotropic material. The results, obtained by analysing a cantilever nonlocal nanobeam, indicate that shear deformation has a considerable influence upon…

A nonhomogeneous nonlocal elasticity model

Nonlocal elasticity with nonhomogeneous elastic moduli and internal length is addressed within a thermodynamic framework suitable to cope with continuum nonlocality. The Clausius–Duhem inequality, enriched by the energy residual, is used to derive the state equations and all other thermodynamic restrictions upon the constitutive equations. A phenomenological nonhomogeneous nonlocal (strain difference-dependent) elasticity model is proposed, in which the stress is the sum of two contributions, local and nonlocal, respectively governed by the standard elastic moduli tensor and the (symmetric positive-definite) nonlocal stiffness tensor. The inhomogeneities of the elastic moduli and of the int…

Strengthening of steel-reinforced concrete structural elements by externally bonded FRP sheets and evaluation of their load carrying capacity

Abstract The paper proposes a preliminary design tool for reinforced concrete (RC) elements strengthened by fiber-reinforced-polymer (FRP) sheets to be used in civil engineering applications and in particular in medical buildings. The design strategy is based on limit analysis theory and utilizes a numerical procedure which provides a direct method to determine peak load, failure mode and critical zones of the structural elements of interest.