Flexural behaviour prediction of a conventional composite-to-steel butt-joint of ships using layerwise HSDT

A hybrid bonded butt-joint, comprised of a double lap steel-GFRP and a GFRP sandwich composite part under three-point bending load is analysed through both numerical and experimental studies. The geometry of the joint is typical for marine applications. Deflection under the load point and strains at various locations of the joint were monitored and also numerically calculated. The numerical approach utilizes layerwise theories based on polynomial shape functions. Then Rayleigh-Ritz approximation technique and principle of minimum potential energy are applied to obtain the unknown coefficients of the displacement fields. Regarding to the low computational cost, the deflection and load predicted by layerwise HSDT is in a good consistency with the experimental results in this study.