Analysis of laminated composite beams by finite difference method

In this study; stress and displacement analysis of laminated composite beams were performed using finite difference method. In the analyzes, different support conditions and beams under different loading conditions were investigated according to Euler-Bernoulli and Timoshenko beam theories. These examined beams have different lamination scheme and different orientation angles. Laminated composite beams are considered as plane stress problem. When stress and strain analyzes were carried out, some assumptions were made for related constitutive and equilibrium equations. The three-dimensional non-linear strain expressions were reduced to two-dimensional and linear strain expressions. The central finite difference relations were used to solve these differential equations. For each finite difference node a centered finite difference statement was written. These expressions were then rearranged according to the boundary conditions. A computer program has been developed using the open-source DEV-C++ V 5.8.3 editor for solving the obtained constitutive and equilibrium equations. Numerical applications were performed using this developed program. The sample problems in the literature have been solved and the accuracy of the developed computer program has been tested. As a result, stress and displacement behavior of laminated composite beams under loads which has different boundary conditions , lamination scheme and orientation angle were presented. The results were presented in tables and graphs.