Access analysis functions for composite tubes, beams, and pressure vessels.
- Tube/Beam
- In Helius Composite, a tube/beam is considered to be a laminated composite structural component whose length L (dimension in the global X direction) is significantly longer than its other two dimensions. It is anticipated to support primarily bending loads and longitudinal tension and compression loads. The cross section of the laminated composite tube/beam can take various closed or open forms such as a circle, ellipse, rectangular box, plate, I-beam, C-channel, etc.
Tube/Beam Analysis
The Tube/Beam Analysis module is accessed via the Tube/Beam drop-down menu which offers six different composite tube/beam analysis features: Bending, Torsion, Vibration, Column Stability, Cylinder Stability, and Pressure Vessel. Below is a brief description of each of the six composite tube/beam analysis features. A detailed description of these six analysis features and their use is given on the pages that follow.
- Bending - Perform a structural analysis (calculate deflections, reaction forces, moments, bending/shear stresses, etc.) of a tube/beam in bending using beam theory calculations. Cross-sections available for analysis include rectangles, plates, circles, ellipses, channels and C/I/T/Hat sections. Loading applications include point loads, uniform distributed loads, and triangular distributed loads. Various boundary conditions are available that involve combinations of simple, free, and fixed end conditions.
- Torsion - Perform a structural analysis (calculate torsional stiffness, angle of twist, shear stresses, etc.) of a tube/beam in torsion using analytical algorithms. Cross-sections available for analysis include rectangles, plates, circles, ellipses, channels, and C/I/T/Hat sections.
- Vibration - Perform a vibrational analysis (calculate frequencies of various modes of vibration) of a tube/beam under a variety of end conditions and masses. Cross-sections available for analysis include rectangles, plates, circles, ellipses, channels, and C/I/T/Hat sections. Various boundary conditions are available that involve combinations of simple, free, and fixed end conditions with and without end masses.
- Cylinder Stability - Perform a stability analysis (calculate critical loading) of a cylinder under a variety of individual or combined loading conditions (internal pressure, axial compression, bending, and torsion).
- Column Stability - Perform a stability analysis (calculate critical loads and stress) of a column. Cross-sections available for analysis include rectangles, plates, circles, ellipses, channels, and C/I/T/Hat sections. Loading applications include point loads and uniformly distributed loads. Various boundary conditions are available that involve combinations of simple, free, and fixed end conditions.
- Pressure Vessel - Perform a structural analysis (calculate stresses, strains, failure index, failure mode, etc.) on a circular cross section thin- or thick-walled pressure vessel. A variety of individual or combined pressure and axial loading is available. Open and closed end conditions are available along with multiple failure criterion for calculating ply failure indices and failure modes (Max-Stress, Max-Strain, Tsai-Wu, Tsai-Hill, Hashin, Christensen, and Puck).
The Tube/Beam Analysis window has eight tabs. The first two are the Laminate tab and the Tube Geometry tab. Once the laminate and tube geometry are defined, select from one of the six analysis tabs. Upon selecting any one of these tabs, feature-specific options will enable you to define aspects of the selected analysis. A detailed description of these tabs is included in the sections listed below.
There are a few key points to keep in mind when using
Helius Composite to perform a tube/beam analysis:
- For beam cross sections that involve a collection of parts (such as an I-beam or a T-beam), each of the individual parts of the beam's cross section is described by the smeared laminate properties of the laminate defined in the Laminate tab. For example, the web and flanges of an I-beam are each assumed to be composed of the laminate that is defined in the Laminate tab.
- For tubes (i.e., beams with closed cross sections), the first ply of the laminate lies on the inner surface of the tube and the last ply of the laminate lies on the outer surface of the tube. In other words, the laminate is built from the inner surface to the outer surface.
- Analyses of beams with tubular (closed) cross sections (rectangular, circle, ellipse, etc.) are valid for any type of laminate. However, the analysis of beams with non-tubular cross sections is restricted to using the smeared properties of the laminate you defined. Caution: this may result in incorrect results.