Hygrothermal effects on free vibration and buckling of laminated composites with cutouts

TL;DR

This study investigates how moisture and thermal gradients affect the vibration and buckling behavior of laminated composite plates with cutouts using an extended finite element method.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical framework that accounts for hygrothermal effects and cutouts in laminated composites, enhancing analysis accuracy.

Findings

Moisture and thermal gradients significantly influence vibration and buckling.

Cutout geometry affects the global response of composite plates.

The extended finite element method effectively captures discontinuities in the analysis.

Abstract

The effect of moisture concentration and the thermal gradient on the free flexural vibration and buckling of laminated composite plates are investigated. The effect of a centrally located cutout on the global response is also studied. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the extended finite element method. A Heaviside function is used to capture the jump in the displacement and an enriched shear flexible 4-noded quadrilateral element is used for the spatial discretization. The formulation takes into account the transverse shear deformation and accounts for the lamina material properties at elevated moisture concentrations and temperature. The influence of the plate geometry, the geometry of the cutout, the moisture concentration, the thermal gradient and the boundary conditions on the free flexural vibration is numerically studied.