Buckling and free vibration study of variable and constant-stiffness cylindrical shells
E. Labans (TU Delft - Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics)
C. Bisagni (TU Delft - Aerospace Structures & Computational Mechanics)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
The ability to steer carbon fibre tapes, varying the tow angle, can widen the designs possibilities of cylindrical shells that are one of the main components of aerospace structures. This research presents experimental and numerical investigation of two carbon fibre reinforced plastic cylindrical shells – a cylinder with conventional layup made of unidirectional prepreg and a variable-stiffness cylinder manufactured by applying fibre placement technology. The shells were tested in compression until buckling and later subjected to a vibration analysis. Load-shortening curves and buckling shapes were acquired during the compression tests, while the natural frequencies and the mode shapes were measured during the vibration tests. Both tests provide a useful data set of the mechanical response of the cylinders which can be applied for further validation of models. The acquired experimental results were compared to a simple, approximated numerical model of the variable-stiffness cylinder showing good correlation with the test results.
help_outline