A two-dimensional layerwise-differential quadrature static analysis of thick laminated composite circular arches

In this paper, a high accuracy and rapid convergence hybrid approach is developed for two-dimensional static analyses of circular arches with different boundary conditions. The method essentially consists of a layerwise technique in the thickness direction in conjunction with differential quadrature method (DQM) in the axial direction. Hence, the high accuracy and fast convergence of DQM with generality of layerwise formulations for modeling the transverse deformations of arbitrary laminated composite thick arches are combined. This results in superior accuracy with fewer degrees of freedom than conventional finite element method (FEM) or finite difference method (FDM). The convergence behavior of the method is shown and to verify its accuracy, the results are compared with those obtained based on the first order shear deformation Reissner-Naghdi type shell theory and also higher order shear deformation theory. The effects of opening angles, ply angle, boundary conditions, and thickness-to-length ratio on the stress and displacement components are studied. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.