Higher-Order Mechanical Modeling of Composite Materials and Structures

The increased attention to more complex shape generation principles for generally-curved structures together with variable radii of curvature, in the last decades, has pushed many scientists and engineers to developed refined approaches able to investigate their mechanical behavior. To this end, advanced numerical methods of analysis are necessary, especially if innovative constituents and materials are employed. Laminates, Functionally Graded Materials (FGMs), Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced media, Variable Angle Tow (VAT) composites, are only some examples of advanced materials that could require proper structural models for an accurate analysis. A theoretical framework based on Higher-order Shear Deformation Theories (HSDTs) is here applied to study the structural response of different laminated shells with a complicated geometry, or composite latticed panels and shells (also named as gridshells). Latticed structures are extensively adopted in the design of large-span buildings, such as stadia, courtyards, expo pavilions, as well as of aerospace structures, due to their high mass efficiency [1,2]. Current approaches to the mechanical analysis of these kind of materials and structures are based either on the finite-element modeling or on the application of continuous models. Here we develop a numerical tool based on the Differential Quadrature (DQ) and Integral Quadrature (IQ) methods to obtain and solve the strong and weak formulations of the fundamental systems in hand [3,4]. This approach is demonstrated to yield accurate and reliable results, as here verified against the available literature, for different combinations of the geometrical and stiffness parameters.