Some studies on static analysis of composite thin-walled box beam

Long hollow rectangular composite box beam configurations are used quite commonly in engineering structures especially in aerospace, ship building and civil engineering construction. In the present study a finite element method is presented for the determination of transverse displacement and layer-wise stress distribution of thin-walled plate structure assembled from flat plates. The finite element formulation is based on Mindlin plate theory which takes shear deformation of the beam into consideration. Effect of material and lay-up sequence on the structural behavior of rectangular cross-section thin-walled composite box beam under uniformly distributed load on the top face with end supports is studied. Copyright © 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.