Analysis of elastically coupled thick-walled composite blades

A formulation for thick-walled composite blades is devised and implemented numerically. A parametric study which is focused on the influence of wall thickness on the structural behavior of blades, with an emphasize on the elastic couplings induced by composite materials is also presented. In contrast with models for thin-walled blades, the shear stresses perpendicular to the local wall direction are accounted for. The numerical solution is based on a finite-difference scheme where the displacement field is described by four global displacements for each cross-section and an out-of-plane warping function for each material Feint. Overall, the solution procedure employs an iterative scheme that enables the inclusion of a large number of independent variables. The results reveal and demonstrate the discrepancies between thick-walled modeling and thin-walled modeling as functions of the wall thickness for various loading modes, and supply a clear indication of regions where employing a thick-walled model is inevitable. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.