Flexural response of cross ply laminated beams subjected to combined thermal and transverse mechanical loads

The present study deals flexural analysis of cross ply laminated beams subjected to combined thermal load and transverse mechanical load. The trigonometric, hyperbolic and 5th order shear deformation theories are used. These theories do not need the shear correction factor and satisfy the stress free condition at top and bottom of the beam. The equilibrium equations are used to find transverse shear stresses. The development of governing equations are done by using principle of virtual work. The stresses and displacements are investigated under uniformly distributed nonlinear thermal load in combination with uniformly distributed transverse mechanical load. The results obtained by these theories are compared with each other since the exact solutions are not available for these problems.

Automated summary

The present study focuses on the flexural analysis of cross ply laminated beams under combined thermal and transverse mechanical loads. Trigonometric, hyperbolic and 5th order shear deformation theories are utilized, which do not require shear correction factor and satisfy stress free condition. The governing equations are developed using the principle of virtual work to determine transverse shear stresses. Stresses and displacements are investigated under uniformly distributed nonlinear thermal load combined with uniformly distributed transverse mechanical load. Comparisons are made among the results obtained from these theories due to the absence of exact solutions for these problems.