Variddhi Ungbhakorn

Similitude invariants and scaling laws for buckling experiments on anti-symmetrically laminated plates subjected to biaxial loading

Abstract Establishing the similitude between the model and prototype rigorously is a necessary step in designing an experiment efficiently. So far, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no one has ever derived the similitude invariant for anti-symmetric cross- and angle-ply laminated plates subjected to biaxial loading before. This research paper is the first to establish the similitude invariant of anti-symmetric cross- and angle-ply laminated plates by applying the similitude transformation to the governing differential equations of buckling directly. Then the scaling laws for buckling loads of laminated plates subjected to biaxial loads are derived. But in reality, either due to the complexity of the scaling laws or to economize on costly experiments, it may not be feasible to construct the model conforming to the scaling laws completely, therefore partial similitude is investigated theoretically and approximate scaling laws are recommended. The buckling loads of the prototype predicted from the scaling laws are then compared with the available theoretical values. The complete similitude cases show exact agreement between results predicted from the scaling laws and the available analytical solutions. For partial similitude cases, the models distorted in stacking sequences, number of plies, and material properties are studied and the approximate scaling laws which yield good agreement are recommended.

Weight optimization of stiffened cylinders under axial compression

Abstract A methodology is developed, by which one may design a stiffened cylinder of specified material, radius, and length, such that it can safely carry a given uniform axial compression with minimum weight. The solution procedure is divided into two stages, Phase I and Phase II. In Phase I, an unconstrained minimization is performed against one of the active constraints (in this paper-general instability) and data are generated in a sufficiently large region of the design space by employing efficient mathematical search techniques, in Phase II, these data are employed to arrive at the minimum weight configuration that satisfies all other constraints. Two design examples are presented which demonstrate the methodology.

STRUCTURAL SIMILITUDE AND SCALING LAWS OF ANTI-SYMMETRIC CROSS-PLY LAMINATED CYLINDRICAL SHELLS FOR BUCKLING AND VIBRATION EXPERIMENTS

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.

SCALING LAW AND PHYSICAL SIMILITUDE FOR BUCKLING AND VIBRATION OF ANTISYMMETRIC ANGLE-PLY LAMINATED CYLINDRICAL SHELLS

The similitude invariants and scaling laws for the buckling and free vibration of antisymmetric angle-ply laminated circular cylindrical shells were derived by directly applying the similitude transformation to the governing differential equations of the problem considered. The scaling laws relate the buckling load and natural frequency of a model to those of a prototype when the similarity requirements between the two systems are fulfilled. In the absence of experimental data, the validity of the scaling laws was verified by calculating theoretically the buckling loads and fundamental frequencies of vibration of the model and substituting them into the scaling laws to yield values for the prototype, which were then compared with those directly computed for the prototype. The numerical studies show that for the case of complete similitude with various stacking sequence, number of plies, and radius ratio, the solutions predicted by the similitude theory agree exactly with those obtained directly from the theory. Some typical partial similitude cases were also investigated. It was demonstrated that the partial similitude model with distortion in stacking sequence is reliable for predicting the behavior of the prototype. On the other hand, models with distortion in material properties are not recommended because of the existence of large discrepancies in the predicted results.