In this textbook for students of laminated composite materials, composite structures, and anisotropic elasticity, Chyanbin Hwu draws on more than three decades of research and applications experience to provide a leading resource on many unique topics related to laminated composite structures. This book introduces the mechanical behavior of laminated composite materials and provides related theories and solutions. All basic structural elements such as beams, plates, and shells are described in detail. Further contents include composite sandwich construction and composite wing structures. To connect with practical engineering applications and analyze more complicated real structures, numerical methods and their theoretical basis in anisotropic elasticity are also included. Advanced topics addressed include solutions for magneto-electro-elastic laminated plates; Green’s functions for thick laminated plates and beams; typical thick laminated beams; theory for general laminated composite shells; sandwich beams, plates, and cylindrical shells as well as delaminated composite sandwich beams; modeling and analysis of composite wing structures; complex variable theories of anisotropic elasticity and the related Green’s functions; and numerical methods such as finite element method, boundary element method and meshless method. Through this book, readers will learn not only the mechanics of laminated composite structures but also anisotropic elasticity and some popular numerical methods. This textbook is vital for advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in the mechanics of composite materials, composite structures, and anisotropic elasticity, such as aerospace, mechanical, civil, and naval engineering; applied mechanics; and engineering science. It is also useful for engineers working in these fields and applied mathematicians and material scientists.

The second edition of this popular text provides complete, detailed coverage of the various theories, analytical solutions, and finite element models of laminated composite plates and shells. The book reflects advances in materials modeling in general and composite materials and structures in particular. It includes a chapter dedicated to the theory and analysis of laminated shells, discussions on smart structures and functionally graded materials, exercises and examples, and chapters that were reorganized from the first edition to improve the clarity of the presentation.

This manuscript comes from the experience gained over ten years of study and research on shell structures and on the Generalized Differential Quadrature method. The title, Mechanics of Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures, illustrates the theme followed in the present volume. The present study aims to analyze the static and dynamic behavior of moderately thick shells made of composite materials through the application of the Differential Quadrature (DQ) technique. A particular attention is paid, other than fibrous and laminated composites, also to “Functionally Graded Materials” (FGMs). They are non-homogeneous materials, characterized by a continuous variation of the mechanical properties through a particular direction. The GDQ numerical solution is compared, not only with literature results, but also with the ones supplied and obtained through the use of different structural codes based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). Furthermore, an advanced version of GDQ method is also presented. This methodology is termed Strong Formulation Finite Element Method (SFEM) because it employs the strong form of the differential system of equations at the master element level and the mapping technique, proper of FEM. The connectivity between two elements is enforced through compatibility conditions.

This manuscript comes from the experience gained over ten years of study and research on shell structures and on the Generalized Differential Quadrature method. The title, Mechanics of Laminated Composite Doubly-Curved Shell Structures, illustrates the theme followed in the present volume. The present study aims to analyze the static and dynamic behavior of moderately thick shells made of composite materials through the application of the Differential Quadrature (DQ) technique. A particular attention is paid, other than fibrous and laminated composites, also to “Functionally Graded Materials” (FGMs). They are non-homogeneous materials, characterized by a continuous variation of the mechanical properties through a particular direction. The GDQ numerical solution is compared, not only with literature results, but also with the ones supplied and obtained through the use of different structural codes based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). Furthermore, an advanced version of GDQ method is also presented. This methodology is termed Strong Formulation Finite Element Method (SFEM) because it employs the strong form of the differential system of equations at the master element level and the mapping technique, proper of FEM. The connectivity between two elements is enforced through compatibility conditions.

The second edition of this popular text provides complete, detailed coverage of the various theories, analytical solutions, and finite element models of laminated composite plates and shells. The book reflects advances in materials modeling in general and composite materials and structures in particular. It includes a chapter dedicated to the theory and analysis of laminated shells, discussions on smart structures and functionally graded materials, exercises and examples, and chapters that were reorganized from the first edition to improve the clarity of the presentation.

Mechanics of Textile and Laminated Composites is in three parts. The first part (Chapters 1 and 2) covers the fundamental issues of 3-D theory of elasticity and presents the theory of elasticity of an anisotropic body with comprehensive analysis of its specific cases. The second part (Chapters 3-5) presents the theoretical and experimental characterization of the elastic properties of unidirectional, textile and layered composite materials. The final part (Chapters 6 and 7) addresses the problems of 3-D stress analysis in laminated and textile composite structures. Major emphasis is placed on textile composites, perhaps the most complex and at the same time most promising group of composite materials. One of the most important features of this book is that it provides accurate and efficient 3-D analysis of laminated and textile reinforced structures, using novel methods. It has become more and more evident in recent years that, in many practical design situations, such full-scale 3-D analyses are required. Researchers, designers and engineers working with composite materials and structures will find this book an invaluable addition to their libraries.

Laminated Composite Plates and Shells presents a systematic and comprehensive coverage of the three-dimensional modelling of these structures. It uses the state space approach to provide novel tools for accurate three-dimensional analyses of thin and thick structural components composed of laminated composite materials. In contrast to the traditional treatment of laminated materials, the state space method guarantees a continuous interfacial stress field across material boundaries. Other unique features of the analysis include the non-dependency of a problem's degrees of freedom on the number of material layers of a laminate. Apart from the introductions to composite materials, three-dimensional elasticity and the concept of state space equations presented in the first three chapters, the book reviews available analytical and numerical three-dimensional state space solutions for bending, vibration and buckling of laminated composite plates and shells of various shapes. The applications of the state space method also include the analyses of piezoelectric laminates and interfacial stresses near free edges. The book presents numerous tables and graphics that show accurate three-dimensional solutions of laminated structural components. Many of the numerical results presented in the book are important in their own right and also as test problems for validating new numerical methods. Laminated Composite Plates and Shells will be of benefit to all materials and structural engineers looking to understand the detailed behaviour of these important materials. It will also interest academic scientists researching that behaviour and engineers from more specialised fields such as aerospace which are becoming increasingly dependent on composites.

This book has one single purpose: to present the development of the partial hybrid finite element method for the stress analysis of laminated composite structures. The reason for this presentation is because the authors believe that partial hybrid finite element method is more efficient that the displacement based finite element method for the stress analysis oflaminated composites. In fact, the examples in chapter 5 of this book show that the partial hybrid finite element method is about 5 times more efficient than the displacement based finite element method. Since there is a great need for accurate and efficient calculation of interlaminar stresses for the design using composites, the partial hybrid finite method does provide one possible solution. Hybrid finite method has been in existence since 1964 and a significant amount of work has been done on the topic. However, the authors are not aware of any systematic piece of literature that gives a detailed presentation of the method. Chapters of the displacement finite element method and the evolution 1 and 2 present a sununary of the hybrid finite element method. Hopefully, these two chapters can provide the readers with an appreciation for the difference between the displacement finite element method and the hybrid finite element. It also should prepare the readers for the introduction of partial hybrid finite element method presented in chapter 3.

Emphasizing the static and dynamic behaviors of nanocomposite single- or multilayered structures in the framework of continuum mechanics-based approaches, Mechanics of Nanocomposites: Homogenization and Analysis investigates mechanical behaviors of polymeric matrices strengthened via various nanofillers and nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene platelets (GPLs), and graphene oxides (GOs). It covers equivalent properties of nanocomposites that are obtained via homogenization techniques based on micromechanics approaches. In addition, this comprehensive book: Discusses the effects of various nanofillers and identifies the amount of the improvement that can be induced in the stiffness of the polymeric nanocomposites by adding a finite content of the aforementioned nanosize reinforcements Magnifies the effect of the number of the stacking plies of the multi-layered nanocomposite structures on both static and dynamic responses of the continuous systems manufactured from such sandwich structures Presents a wide range of analytical and numerical solution procedures Investigates the effects of porosity along with mechanical characteristics of nanocomposites Considers the time-dependency of the material properties of the viscoelastic polymeric nanocomposite structures Performs analyses using an energy-based approach incorporated with the strain-displacement relations of both classical and higher-order shear deformable beam, plate, or shell theorems Aimed at researchers, academics, and professionals working across mechanical, materials, and other areas of engineering, this work ensures that readers are equipped to fully understand the mechanical characteristics of nanocomposite structures so that they can design, develop, and apply these materials effectively.

Over the last few decades, uncertainty quantification in composite materials and structures has gained a lot of attention from the research community as a result of industrial requirements. This book presents computationally efficient uncertainty quantification schemes following meta-model-based approaches for stochasticity in material and geometric parameters of laminated composite structures. Several metamodels have been studied and comparative results have been presented for different static and dynamic responses. Results for sensitivity analyses are provided for a comprehensive coverage of the relative importance of different material and geometric parameters in the global structural responses.