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O σχεδιασμός και η ανάπτυξη μιας σύγχρονης αεροναυπηγικής κατασκευής περιλαμβάνει ως επιμέρους φάσεις (μεταξύ άλλων) τον αρχικό και τον προκαταρκτικό σχεδιασμό. Οι φάσεις αυτές έχουν ιδιαίτερη σημασία διότι εκεί δίνεται η αρχική μορφή και οι διαστάσεις της κατασκευής. Είναι γεγονός ότι η συμβατική σχεδίαση των βασικών δομικών στοιχείων των αεροσκαφών έχει φτάσει σε πολύ υψηλό επίπεδο βελτιστοποίησης που επιδέχεται πλέον μόνο μικρά περιθώρια περαιτέρω βελτίωσης. Οι σύγχρονες όμως απαιτήσεις των ελαφρών κατασκευών, όπως δραστική μείωση του βάρους, αύξηση του ωφέλιμου φορτίου κτλ. ωθεί τις αεροναυπηγικές βιομηχανίες στη δημιουργία δομών που ξεφεύγουν από τις παραδοσιακές (μη-συμβατικές δομές). Παράλληλα με τα παραπάνω γίνεται προσπάθεια για μερική αντικατάσταση μεταλλικών υλικών από σύνθετα υλικά στις πρωτεύουσες δομές αεροναυπηγικών κατασκευών. Για να σχεδιαστούν και να εξελιχθούν μη-συμβατικές αεροναυπηγικές δομές χωρίς να καταφύγει κάποιος σε εκτενείς πειραματικές δοκιμές, η σύγχρονη τάση είναι η ανάπτυξη και ο συνδυασμός προτύπων συμπεριφοράς στη λογική της εξομοίωσης των πειραματικών δοκιμών. Η εξομοίωση αυτή επιτυγχάνεται με τη βοήθεια ηλεκτρονικών υπολογιστών και κατάλληλων μεθόδων βασισμένων στη θεωρία των πινάκων (Πεπερασμένα Στοιχεία, Συνοριακά Στοιχεία κλπ.). Στη φάση του αρχικού και προκαταρκτικού σχεδιασμού η εφαρμογή των μεθοδολογιών προσομοίωσης δεν είναι πάντοτε εύκολη και απλή, λόγω των πολλαπλών αλλαγών στη γεωμετρία, το υλικό και τις κατασκευαστικές λεπτομέρειες που πραγματοποιούνται στη δομή κατά την επαναληπτική διαδικασία του σχεδιασμού. Επομένως, η αποκλειστική χρήση αριθμητικών μεθόδων ανάλυσης καθίσταται αναποτελεσματική από άποψη χρονικών απαιτήσεων, αν δεν συνοδεύεται από αναλυτικές ή ημιαναλυτικές προσεγγίσεις επιμέρους προβλημάτων του σχεδιασμού. Βασικό μέρος του προκαταρκτικού σχεδιασμού μιας πτέρυγας μη συμβατικής δομής αποτελεί η αποφυγή της αστοχίας του άνω τμήματός της, διότι οι λεπτότοιχες ενισχυμένες με δοκούς πλάκες που χρησιμοποιούνται στην κατασκευή υφίστανται λυγισμό λόγω των θλιπτικών φορτίσεων που κυρίως παραλαμβάνουν. Η διαστασιολόγηση των σύνθετων πλακών που φέρουν δοκούς ενίσχυσης στις κατασκευές αυτές απαιτούν συνήθως πλήθος επαναληπτικών υπολογισμών για διαφορετικές γεωμετρίες, φορτίσεις, οριακές συνθήκες κλπ. Η εξέταση της κάθε περίπτωσης μεμονωμένα με τη χρήση αριθμητικών μεθόδων καθιστά την επίλυση ολόκληρης της κατασκευής εξαιρετικά χρονοβόρα. Για το λόγο αυτό, στη φάση της αρχικής θεωρητικής μελέτης και της αρχικής διαστασιολόγησης η χρησιμοποίηση αναλυτικών μεθόδων για την εύρεση του κρίσιμου φορτίου λυγισμού πλακών με δοκούς ενίσχυσης οδηγεί στην εξοικονόμηση υπολογιστικού κόστους. Επομένως, η ανάπτυξη αναλυτικών ή ημιαναλυτικών μεθόδων προσδιορισμού των φορτίων λυγισμού ενισχυμένων με δοκούς συνθέτων πλακών και κελυφών θεωρείται πολύ σημαντική. Για τον σκοπό αυτό, στο πλαίσιο αυτής της διατριβής, αναπτύσσονται αναλυτικές και ημιαναλυτικές λύσεις για το λυγισμό πολύστρωτων πλακών ενισχυμένων με ενισχυτικές διαμήκεις δοκούς, οι οποίες ενσωματώνονται σαν κριτήρια στη μέθοδο διαστασιολόγησης της δομής. Η μεθοδολογία συμπληρώνεται με πλήθος άλλων κατάλληλων κριτηρίων για τον έλεγχο της αντοχής των δομικών στοιχείων της πτέρυγας καθώς και με κριτήρια για την επαναδιαστασιολόγηση των στοιχείων κατά την επαναληπτική διαδικασία της βελτιστοποίησης. Με τη μεθοδολογία που αναπτύσσεται διερευνούνται διατάξεις δομής πτερύγων από σύνθετα υλικά με πολυάριθμες κύριες δοκούς. Πιο συγκεκριμένα, αναπτύσσονται αναλυτικές/ημιαναλυτικές λύσεις ολικού και τοπικού λυγισμού πλακών που φέρουν δοκούς ενίσχυσης. Όσον αφορά τον ολικό λυγισμό αναπτύσσεται μια μεθοδολογία που βασίζεται στη μαθηματική μετατροπή μιας πλάκας που φέρει δοκούς ενίσχυσης σε μια ισοδύναμη ομογενή πλάκα. Η αναπτυχθείσα μεθοδολογία ομογενοποίησης των ενισχυμένων πλακών εμφανίζει σημαντικά πλεονεκτήματα σε σύγκριση με τις αντίστοιχες ήδη υπάρχουσες. Παράλληλα, η ενεργειακή μέθοδος Rayleigh-Ritz εφαρμόζεται για τη λύση προβλημάτων λυγισμού μερικώς ανισότροπων πλακών με ενισχυτικές δοκούς από σύνθετα υλικά, λαμβάνοντας διακριτά υπόψη τις ενισχυτικές δοκούς. Όσον αφορά το πρόβλημα του τοπικού λυγισμού, αναπτύσσεται μια νέα μεθοδολογία για την εύρεση των κρίσιμων φορτίων τοπικού λυγισμού λεπτότοιχης πλάκας με χρήση ενεργειακών μεθόδων. Το μαθηματικό μοντέλο που χρησιμοποιείται για την περίπτωση του τοπικού λυγισμού της επικάλυψης είναι η απομόνωση του τμήματος της επικάλυψης μεταξύ δυο ενισχυτικών δοκών και η αντικατάσταση της δυσκαμψίας της υπόλοιπης πλάκας με ελατήρια μεταβλητής δυσκαμψίας. Η μεθοδολογία αυτή επεκτείνεται και στον προσδιορισμό της μεταλυγισμικής συμπεριφοράς μιας πλάκας ενισχυμένης με διαμήκεις δοκούς. Οι παραπάνω μεθοδολογίες υπολογισμού του κρίσιμου φορτίου λυγισμού που αναπτύσσονται, στα πλαίσια αυτής της διατριβής, εφαρμόζονται στη διαστασιολόγηση πτέρυγας μη συμβατικής δομής από σύνθετα υλικά με πολυάριθμες κύριες δοκούς, σε αντίθεση με τις συμβατικές πτέρυγες (με δύο κύριες δοκούς). Η ανάλυση τάσεων της πτέρυγας πραγματοποιείται με τη βοήθεια της μεθόδου των πεπερασμένων στοιχείων. Η τελική διαστασιολόγηση επιτυγχάνεται με επαναληπτική διαδικασία βελτιστοποίησης βασισμένη σε αναλυτικές και ημιαναλυτικές σχέσεις. Με τον τρόπο αυτό, συγκρίνεται λεπτομερώς η συμβατική δομή πτέρυγας με 2 κύριες δοκούς και οι αντίστοιχες πτέρυγες με 4, 5 και 6 κύριες δοκούς. Για την περαιτέρω βελτιστοποίηση της συμπεριφοράς της πτέρυγας, διερευνάται η επίδραση που έχει η αλλαγή των μηχανικών ιδιοτήτων του υλικού και των επιτρεπόμενων ορίων παραμόρφωσης στη δυνατότητα ελαχιστοποίησης της μάζας της πτέρυγας. Υπολογίστηκε ότι κάτω από συγκεκριμένες συνθήκες η χρήση της μη συμβατικής πτέρυγας μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε μείωση μάζας μέχρι και 12%. / The design and development of a modern aerospace structure consists of many design stages. The most important stages are the conceptual and the preliminary where the initial sizing of the structure is obtained. It is known that the conventional design of the aircraft’s main structural members has reached a high optimization level, where margins for further improvement are small. The current demands of the lightweight structures such as weight reduction, payload increase etc. have led the aerospace industries develop unconventional structures and partially substitute the metallic materials of the primary structures with composites. The current trend of designing and evolving unconventional aerospace structures, without performing extended experimental tests, leads to the development of behavior models. The simulation of the experimental tests (through the behavior models) is achieved using high performance computers and numerical methods (Finite Element Method, Boundary Element Method etc). To apply simulation methods during the conceptual and preliminary stage is not an easy task. Most of the difficulties are the numerous geometrical, material parameters and the structural details that alter during the iterative process of the design. So, the exclusive usage of numerical analysis methods becomes very time consuming, if it is not accompanied by analytical or semi analytical methods of the sub-problems of the design. Part of the preliminary design of an unconventional wing structure is to prevent upper skin from failure. The stiffened panels that comprise the upper skin of the wing suffer from buckling due to the applied compressive loads. The sizing of the composite stiffened panels usually requires numerous of iterative calculations for various geometries, loading and boundary conditions etc. The examination of each case separately, with the use of numerical methods, results to time consuming analyses of the entire structure. Therefore, the development of appropriate analytical or semi analytical methods for estimating stiffened panels’ critical buckling load is of great importance. For this purpose, in the present thesis, analytical and semi analytical methodologies are developed for estimating the critical buckling load of stiffened panels. The developed methodologies are incorporated as design criteria in the sizing routine of the entire structure. The sizing routine comprises additional sizing criteria for checking the strength of wing’s structural members at each phase of the iterative process. Applying the developed sizing routine in various wing configurations made of composite materials, multispar wing designs are studied. Specifically, analytical and semi analytical methods for global and local buckling problems of stiffened panels are developed. The methodology of global buckling problems is based on the mathematical conversion of a stiffened panel to an equivalent homogeneous panel. The developed method of homogenization of stiffened panels appears to have significant advantages over the already existed homogenization methods. Additionally, the energy method Rayleigh-Ritz is applied for solving global buckling problems of stiffened panels with partial anisotropy considering discrete stiffeners. Regarding local buckling problems of stiffened panels, a new methodology is developed for estimating the critical local buckling load with the use of energy methods. The approach considers the stiffened panel segment located between two stiffeners, while the remaining panel is replaced by equivalent transverse and rotational springs of varying stiffness, which act as elastic edge supports. The buckling analysis of the segment provides an accurate and conservative prediction of the panel local buckling behavior. Consequently, the developed methodology is extended in the prediction of post-buckling response of stiffened panels where skin has undergone local buckling. The developed methodologies for calculating the critical buckling load are applied for sizing the wing members of an unconventional wing (multispar configuration) from composite materials. An efficient methodology based on fast Finite Element (FE) stress analysis combined to analytically formulated design criteria is presented for the initial sizing of a large scale composite component. A detailed comparison between optimized designs of conventional (2-spar) and three alternative wing configurations which comprise 4-, 5-, and 6-spars for the wing construction is performed. In order to understand the effect of different material properties, as well as the variation of maximum strain level allowed in the total wing mass, parametric analyses are performed for all wing configurations considered. It arises that under certain conditions the multispar configuration demonstrates significant advantages over the conventional design. This would lead to a mass reduction of 12%.

A utilização de aços de alta resistência em terças formadas a frio faz com que as espessuras sejam cada vez mais reduzidas e, como consequência, os fenômenos de instabilidade mais pronunciados. Para melhorar a eficiência estrutural, enrijecedores longitudinais podem ser inseridos na alma, aumentando a resistência em relação ao modo de instabilidade local. Ainda que a utilização de seções com alma enrijecida seja uma prática comum, os procedimentos adequados para seu dimensionamento são pouco abordados na literatura. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o comportamento estrutural de terças formadas a frio de seção transversal ZAE, com enrijecedores de borda a 90º e dois enrijecedores longitudinais na alma. Para tanto, foram realizadas análises teórica e experimental de um conjunto formado por terças com alma enrijecida ZAE e suas equivalentes de alma plana, as seções Z com enrijecedores de borda a 90°. Apesar de ter sido dada ênfase às solicitações por força cortante e por combinação de momento fletor e força cortante, foram realizados ensaios complementares para avaliar a predominância de momento fletor. As alterações nos esforços críticos elásticos devido à presença dos enrijecedores foram analisadas teoricamente, e os dados experimentais e numéricos foram utilizados para prever a interação. Os resultados teóricos indicaram que os enrijecedores longitudinais têm pequena influência nos modos de instabilidade distorcional e global, porém grande influência no modo local, promovendo um aumento significativo das tensões críticas em relação às seções correspondentes de alma plana. Já os resultados experimentais mostraram que a capacidade resistente das seções Z foi superior a das seções ZAE, devido principalmente à mobilização do campo de tração e à maior restrição rotacional da mesa conferida pela ligação. Os protótipos sem restrição à distorção apresentaram falha prematura, ocasionada pela rotação da mesa na região dos apoios. Considerando os protótipos com restrição à distorção, os resultados atenderam às curvas de interação circular e trilinear. Concluiu-se que o projeto de terças com alma enrijecida pode ser realizado utilizando a expressão de interação trilinear e o momento fletor resistente do modo distorcional. / The use of high strength steel in cold-formed purlins leads to a reduction in thickness and, as a consequence, the instability becomes more significant. In order to improve the structural efficiency of the sections, longitudinal stiffeners can be inserted into the web, increasing the strength in relation to local buckling. Although the use of sections with stiffened web is a common practice, the appropriate procedures for design are rarely discussed in scientific literature. The purpose of this work was to study the structural behavior of cold-formed steel purlins ZAE-sections, with 90º lips and two longitudinal stiffeners in the web. Therefore, theoretical and experimental analyses were performed, involving a set of purlins with stiffened web ZAE-sections and their equivalent plain web, the Z-sections with 90º lips. Although emphasis was given in shear and combined bending and shear, additional experimental tests were performed to evaluate the predominance of bending. Changes in critical elastic buckling stresses due to longitudinal stiffeners were evaluated and experimental and numerical data were used to predict the interation. Theoretical results indicated that longitudinal stiffeners of the ZAE-sections have little influence on distortional and global buckling. However, it has a great influence on local buckling, promoting a significant increase of the critical stresses in relation to the Z-sections. Experimental results showed that the ultimate strength of the Z-sections was higher than ZAE-sections, mainly due to the development of tension field action and the rotational restraint of the web conferred by the connection. The prototypes without distortion restraint presented premature failure, caused by rotation of the web in the region of the supports. Considering the distortion-constrained prototypes, the results satisfied the \"circular\" and \"trilinear\" interaction curves. It was concluded that design of purlins with stiffened web can be performed using the \"trilinear\" interaction expression and the distortional buckling moment capacity.

Master’s thesis deals with the damage tolerance evaluation of L410 NG aircraft lower wing integrally stiffened panel including crack growth and residual strength analyses and inspection program proposal. Presented DT evaluation has been done using FE model of the wing and AFGROW software.

Mechanics of structure genome (MSG) is a unified homogenization theory that provides constitutive modeling of three-dimensional (3D) continua, beams and plates. In present work, the author extends the MSG to study the buckling of structures such as stiffened and sandwich panels. Such structures are usually slender or flat and easily buckle under compressive loads or bending moments which may result in catastrophic failure.<div><br><div>Buckling studies of stiffened and sandwich panels are found to be scattered. Most of the existed theories employ unnecessary assumptions or only apply to certain types of structures. There are few unified approaches that are capable of studying the buckling of different kinds of structures altogether. The main improvements of current approach compared with other methods in the literature are avoiding unnecessary assumptions, the capability of predicting all possible buckling modes including the global and local buckling modes, and the potential in studying the buckling of various types of structures.<br></div><div><br></div><div>For global buckling that features small local rotations, MSG mathematically decouples the 3D geometrical nonlinear problem into a linear constitutive modeling using structure genome (SG) and a geometrical nonlinear problem defined in a macroscopic structure. As a result, the original structures are simplified as macroscopic structures such as beams, plates or continua with effective properties, and the global buckling modes are predicted on macroscopic structures. For local buckling that features finite local rotations, Green strain is introduced into the MSG theory to achieve geometrically nonlinear constitutive modeling. Newton’s method is used to solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations for fluctuating functions. To find the bifurcated fluctuating functions, the fluctuating functions are then perturbed under the Bloch-periodic boundary conditions. The bifurcation is found when the tangent stiffness associated with the perturbed fluctuating functions becomes singular. Moreover, the arc-length method is introduced to solve the nonlinear equilibrium equations for post-local-buckling predictions because of its robustness. The imperfection is included in the form of geometrical imperfection by superimposing the scaled buckling modes in linear perturbation analysis on mesh.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Extensive validation case studies are carried out to assess the accuracy of the MSG theory in global buckling analysis and post-global-buckling analysis, and assess the accuracy of the extended MSG theory in local buckling and post-local-buckling analysis. Results using MSG theory and extended MSG theory in buckling analysis are compared with direct numerical solutions such as 3D FEA results and results in literature. Parametric studies are performed to reveal the relative influence of selective geometric parameters on buckling behaviors. The extended MSG theory is also compared with representative volume element (RVE) analysis with Bloch-periodic boundary conditions using commercial finite element packages such as Abaqus to assess the efficiency and accuracy of the present approach.<br></div></div>

The importance of fire safety design has been realised due to the ever increasing loss of properties and lives caused by structural failures during fires. In recognition of the importance of fire safety design, extensive research has been undertaken in the field of fire safety of buildings and structures especially over the last couple of decades. In the same period, the development of fire safety engineering principles has brought significant reduction to the cost of fire protection. However the past fire research on steel structures has been limited to heavier, hot-rolled structural steel members and thus the structural behaviour of light gauge cold-formed steel members under fire conditions is not well understood. Since cold-formed steel structures have been commonly used for numerous applications and their use has increased rapidly in the last decade, the fire safety of cold-formed steel structural members has become an important issue. The current design standards for steel structures have simply included a list of reduction factors for the yield strength and elasticity modulus of hot-rolled steels without any detailed design procedures. It is not known whether these reduction factors are applicable to the commonly used thin, high strength steels in Australia. Further, the local buckling effects dominate the structural behaviour of light gauge cold-formed steel members. Therefore an extensive research program was undertaken at the Queensland University of Technology to investigate the local buckling behaviour of light gauge cold-formed steel compression members under simulated fire conditions. The first phase of this research program included 189 tensile coupon tests including three steel grades and six thicknesses to obtain the accurate yield strength and elasticity modulus values at elevated temperatures because the deterioration of the mechanical properties is the major parameter in the structural design under fire conditions. The results obtained from the tensile tests were used to predict the ultimate strength of cold-formed steel members. An appropriate stress-strain model was also developed by considering the inelastic mechanical characteristics. The second phase of this research was based on a series of more than 120 laboratory experiments and corresponding numerical analyses on cold-formed steel compression members to investigate the local bucking behaviour of the unstiffened flange elements, stiffened web elements and stiffened web and flange elements at elevated temperatures up to 800°C. The conventional effective design rules were first simply modified considering the reduced mechanical properties obtained from the tensile coupon tests and their adequacy was studied using the experimental and numerical results. It was found that the simply modified effective width design rules were adequate for low strength steel members and yet was not adequate for high strength cold-formed steel members due to the severe reduction of the ultimate strength in the post buckling strength range and the severe reduction ratio of the elasticity modulus to the yield strength at elevated temperatures. Due to the inadequacy of the current design rules, the theoretical, semi-empirical and empirical effective width design rules were developed to accurately predict the ultimate strength of cold-formed steel compression members subject to local buckling effects at elevated temperatures. The accuracy of these new design methods was verified by comparing their predictions with a variety of experimental and numerical results. This thesis presents the details of extensive experimental and numerical studies undertaken in this research program and the results including comparison with simply modified effective width design rules. It also describes the advanced finite element models of cold-formed steel compression members developed in this research including the appropriate mechanical properties, initial imperfections, residual stresses and other significant factors. Finally, it presents the details of the new design methods proposed for the cold-formed steel compression members subject to local buckling effects at elevated temperatures.

Composite structures provide opportunities for weight reduction, material tailoring and integrating control surfaces with embedded transducers, which are not possible in conventional metallic structures. As a result there is a substantial increase in the use of composite materials in aerospace and other major industries, which has necessitated the need for structural health monitoring(SHM) of aerospace structures. In the context of SHM of aircraft structures, there are many areas, which are still not explored and need deep investigation. Among these, one of the major areas is the development of efficient damage models for complex composite structures, like stiffened structures, box-type structures, which are the building blocks of an aircraft wing structure. Quantification of the defect due to porosity and especially the methods for identifying the porous regions in a composite structure is another such area, which demands extensive research. In aircraft structures, it is not advisable for the structures, to have high porosity content, since it can initiate common defects in composites such as, delamination, matrix cracks etc.. In fact, there is need for a high frequency analysis to detect defects in such complex structures and also to detect damages, where the change in the stiffness due to the damage is very small. Lamb wave propagation based method is one of the efficient high frequency wave based method for damage detection and are extensively used for detecting small damages, which is essentially needed in aircraft industry. However, in order, to develop an efficient Lamb wave based SHM system, we also need an efficient computational wave propagation model. Developing an efficient computational wave propagation model for complex structures is still a challenging area. One of the major difficulty is its computational expense, when the analysis is performed using conventional FEM. However, for 1D And 2D composite structures, frequency domain spectral finite element method (SFEM), which are very effective in sensing small stiffness changes due to a defect in a structure, is one of the efficient tool for developing computationally efficient and accurate wave based damage models. In this work, we extend the efficiency of SFEM in developing damage models, for detecting damages in built-up composite structures and porous composite structure. Finally, in reality, the nature of variability of the material properties in a composite structure, created a variety of structural problems, in which the uncertainties in different parameters play a major part. Uncertainties can be due to the lack of good knowledge of material properties or due to the change in the load and support condition with the change in environmental variables such as temperature, humidity and pressure. The modeling technique is also one of the major sources of uncertainty, in the analysis of composites. In fact, when the variations are large, we can find in the literatures available that the probabilistic models are advantageous than the deterministic ones. Further, without performing a proper uncertain wave propagation analysis, to characterize the effect of uncertainty in different parameters, it is difficult to maintain the reliability of the results predicted by SFEM based damage models. Hence, in this work, we also study the effect of uncertainty in different structural parameters on the performance of the damage models, based on the models developed in the present work. First, two SFEM based models, one based on the method of assembling 2D spectral elements and the other based on the concept of coupling 2D and 1D spectral elements, are developed to perform high frequency wave propagation analysis of some of the commonly used built-up composite structures. The SFEM model developed using the plate-beam coupling approach is then used to model wave propagation in a multiple stiffened structure and also to model the stiffened structures with different cross sections such as T-section, I-section and hat section. Next, the wave propagation in a porous laminated composite beam is modeled using SFEM, based on the modified rule of mixture approach. Here, the material properties of the composite is obtained from the modified rule of mixture model, which are then used in SFEM to develop a new model for solving wave propagation problems in porous laminated composite beam. The influence of the porosity content on the parameters such as wave number, group speed and also the effect of variation in theses parameters on the time responses are studied first. Next, the effect of the length of the porous region (in the propagation direction) and the frequency of loading, on the time responses, is studied. The change in the time responses with the change in the porosity of the structure is used as a parameter to find the porosity content in a composite beam. The SFEM models developed in this study is then used in the context of wave based damage detection, in the next study. First ,the actual measured response from a structure and the numerically obtained response from a SFEM model for porous laminated composite beam are used for the estimation of porosity, by solving a nonlinear optimization problem. The damage force indicator (DFI) technique is used to locate the porous region in a beam and also to find its length, using the measured wave propagation responses. DFI is derived from the dynamic stiffness matrix of the healthy structure along with the nodal displacements of the damaged structure. Next, a wave propagation based method is developed for modeling damage in stiffened composite structures, using SFEM, to locate and quantify the damage due to a crack and skin-stiffener debonding. The method of wave scattering and DFI technique are used to quantify the damage in the stiffened structure. In the uncertain wave propagation analysis, a study on the uncertainty in material parameters on the wave propagation responses in a healthy metallic beam structure is performed first. Both modulus of elasticity and density are considered uncertain and the analysis is performed using Monte-Carlo simulation (MCS) under the environment of SFEM. The randomness in the material properties are characterized by three different distributions namely normal, Weibul and extreme value distribution and their effect on wave propagation, in beam is investigated. Even a study is performed on the usage of different beam theories and their uncertain responses due to dynamic impulse load. A study is also conducted to analyze the wave propagation response In a composite structure in an uncertain environment using Neumann expansion blended with Monte-Carlo simulation (NE-MCS) under the environment of SFEM. Neumann expansion method accelerates the MCS, which is required for composites as there are many number of uncertain variables. The effect of the parameters like, fiber orientation, lay-up sequence, number of layers and the layer thickness on the uncertain responses due to dynamic impulse load, is thoroughly analyzed. Finally, a probabilistic sensitivity analysis is performed to estimate the sensitivity of uncertain material and fabrication parameters, on the SFEM based damage models for a porous laminated composite beam. MCS is coupled with SFEM, for the uncertain wave propagation analysis and the Kullback-Leibler relative entropy is used as the measure of sensitivity. The sensitivity of different input variables on the wave number, group speed and the values of DFI, are mainly considered in this study. The thesis, written in nine chapters, presents a unified document on wave propagation in healthy and defective composite structure subjected to both deterministic and highly uncertain environment.

<p>A large rectangular industrial duct consists of plates stiffened with parallel wide flange sections. The plates along with stiffeners acts to resist the pressure loads and to carry other loads to the supports. The behaviours of the components of large industrial ducts are significantly different from the behaviours on which the current design methods are based on. Investigation presented herein deals with the design methods for spacing stiffeners, proportioning stiffeners and calculating shear resistance of side panel.</p> <p>Current method of spacing stiffeners is based on large deflection plate theory. A parametric study was conducted on dimensionless parameters identified in order to benefit from membrane action in partially yielding plate for spacing stiffeners. Design equations were established in terms of dimensionless pressure, plate slenderness and normalized out-of-plane deflection for three cases namely; 0%, 16.5% and 33% of through thickness yielding of the plate. Results show that approximately 50% increase in stiffener spacing when yielding of 16.5% of thickness is permitted.</p> <p>Under suction type pressure load, the unsupported compression flange and restrained tension flange lead to distortional buckling of the stiffeners. The current methods do not address distortional buckling adequately. A parametric study on dimensionless parameters governing the behaviour and strength of stiffened plat panels was conducted. The study indicated that the behaviour and strength of the stiffened panels could be a function of web slenderness and overall slenderness of the stiffener. The study also identified the slenderness limit of stiffener web for which the stiffener reaches the yield moment capacity. This study demonstrated the conservatism of current method. Finally a method was established to calculate the strength of stiffened plate panel subjected lateral pressure.</p> <p>Side panels adjacent to the supports transfer large amount of shear to the supports and, in addition, resist internal pressure. Currently the design of side panels for shear is based on the methods used for the web of fabricated plate girders. The behaviour and the characteristics between the web of plate girder and the thin side panels are significantly different. A parametric study was conducted on dimensionless parameters identified. It was concluded that the plate slenderness dominates the normalized shear strength of stockier side panels. The aspect ratio and plate slenderness influence the normalized shear strength of slender side panels. Design methods to calculate the shear strength of side panels were proposed.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Global-local finite element analyses were used to study the damage tolerance of curvilinearly stiffened panels; fabricated using the modern additive manufacturing process, the so-called unitized structures, and that of adhesive joints. A damage tolerance study of the unitized structures requires cracks to be defined in the vicinity of the critical stress zone. With the damage tolerance study of unitized structures as the focus, responses of curvilinearly stiffened panels to the combined shear and compression loadings were studied for different stiffeners' height. It was observed that the magnitude of the minimum principal stress in the panel was larger than the magnitudes of the maximum principal and von Mises stresses. It was also observed that the critical buckling load factor increased significantly with the increase of stiffeners' height. To study the damage tolerance of curvilinearly stiffened panels, in the first step, buckling analysis of panels was performed to determine whether panels satisfied the buckling constraint. In the second step, stress distributions of the panel were analyzed to determine the location of the critical stress under the combined shear and compression loadings. Then, the fracture analysis of the curvilinearly stiffened panel with a crack of size 1.45 mm defined at the location of the critical stress, which was the common location with the maximum magnitude of the principal stresses and von Mises stress, was performed under combined shear and tensile loadings. This crack size was used because of the requirement of a sufficiently small crack, if the crack is in the vicinity of any stress raiser. A mesh sensitivity analysis was performed to validate the choice of the mesh density near the crack tip. All analyses were performed using global-local finite element method using MSC. Marc, and global finite element methods using MSC. Marc and ABAQUS. Negligible difference in results and 94% saving in the CPU time was achieved using the global-local finite element method over the global finite element method by using a mesh density of 8.4 element/mm ahead of the crack tip. To study the influence of different loads on basic modes of fracture, the shear and normal (tensile) loads were varied differently. It was observed that the case with the fixed shear load but variable normal loads and the case with the fixed normal load but variable shear loads were Mode-I. Under the maximum combined loading condition, the largest effective stress intensity factor was very smaller than the critical stress intensity factor. Therefore, considering the critical stress intensity factor of the panel with the crack of size 1.45 mm, the design of the stiffened panel was an optimum design satisfying damage tolerance constraints. To acquire the trends in stress intensity factors for different crack lengths under different loadings, fracture analyses of curvilinearly stiffened panels with different crack lengths were performed by using a global-local finite element method under three different load cases: a) a shear load, b) a normal load, and c) a combined shear and normal loads. It was observed that 85% data storage space and the same amount in CPU time requirement could be saved using global-local finite element method compared to the standard global finite element analysis. It was also observed that the fracture mode in panels with different crack lengths was essentially Mode-I under the normal load case; Mode-II under the shear load case; and again Mode-I under the combined load case. Under the combined loading condition, the largest effective stress intensity factor of the panel with a crack of recommended size, if the crack is not in the vicinity of any stress raiser, was very smaller than the critical stress intensity factor. This work also includes the performance evaluation of adhesive joints of two different materials. This research was motivated by our experience of an adhesive joint failure on a test-fixture that we used to experimentally validate the design of stiffened panels under a compression-shear load. In the test-fixture, steel tabs were adhesively bonded to an aluminum panel and this adhesive joint debonded before design loads on the test panel were fully applied. Therefore, the requirement of studying behavior of adhesive joints for assembling dissimilar materials was found to be necessary. To determine the failure load responsible for debonding of adhesive joints of two dissimilar materials, stress distributions in adhesive joints of the nonlinear finite element model of the test-fixture were studied under a gradually increasing compression-shear load. Since the design of the combined load test fixture was for transferring the in-plane shear and compression loads to the panel, in-plane loads might have been responsible for the debonding of the steel tabs, which was similar to the results obtained from the nonlinear finite element analysis of the combined load test fixture. Then, fundamental studies were performed on the three-dimensional finite element models of adhesive lap joints and the Asymmetric Double Cantilever Beam (ADCB) joints for shear and peel deformations subjected to a loading similar to the in-plane loading conditions in the test-fixtures. The analysis was performed using ABAQUS, and the cohesive zone modeling was used to study the debonding growth. It was observed that the stronger adhesive joints could be obtained using the tougher adhesive and thicker adherends. The effect of end constraints on the fracture resistance of the ADCB specimen under compression was also investigated. The numerical observations showed that the delamination for the fixed end ADCB joints was more gradual than for the free end ADCB joints. Finally, both the crack propagation and the characteristics of adhesive joints were studied using a global-local finite element method. Three cases were studied using the proposed global-local finite element method: a) adhesively bonded Double Cantilever Beam (DCB), b) an adhesive lap joint, and c) a three-point bending test specimen. Using global-local methods, in a crack propagation problem of an adhesively bonded DCB, more than 80% data storage space and more than 65% CPU time requirement could be saved. In the adhesive lap joints, around 70% data storage space and 70% CPU time requirement could be saved using the global-local method. For the three-point bending test specimen case, more than 90% for both data storage space and CPU time requirement could be saved using the global-local method. / Ph. D.