Applied and Computational Mechanics (Jun 2016)
Using Fourier and Taylor series expansion in semi-analytical deformation analysis of thick-walled isotropic and wound composite structures
Abstract
Thick-walled tubes made from isotropic and anisotropic materials are subjected to an internal pressure while the semi-analytical method is employed to investigate their elastic deformations. The contribution and novelty of this method is that it works universally for different loads, different boundary conditions, and different geometry of analyzed structures. Moreover, even when composite material is considered, the method requires no simplistic assumptions. The method uses a curvilinear tensor calculus and it works with the analytical expression of the total potential energy while the unknown displacement functions are approximated by using appropriate series expansion. Fourier and Taylor series expansion are involved into analysis in which they are tested and compared. The main potential of the proposed method is in analyses of wound composite structures when a simple description of the geometry is made in a curvilinear coordinate system while material properties are described in their inherent Cartesian coordinate system. Validations of the introduced semi-analytical method are performed by comparing results with those obtained from three-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA). Calculations with Fourier series expansion show noticeable disagreement with results from the finite element model because Fourier series expansion is not able to capture the course of radial deformation. Therefore, it can be used only for rough estimations of a shape after deformation. On the other hand, the semi-analytical method with Fourier Taylor series expansion works very well for both types of material. Its predictions of deformations are reliable and widely exploitable.
