Three-Dimensional Structural Analysis of Shell Structures Using MSG-Based Beam Model
摘要
The accurate high-fidelity modeling of thin-walled structures is expensive in computational and time domains. The fast computational requirement especially in the design-initiation phase cannot be undermined. Therefore, engineers prefer beam models through performing analysis along reference line and capturing the cross-sectional information over beam elements. This beam modeling approach can be found in widely accepted and industry-trusted tool, VABS and in SwiftComp, based on Mechanics of Structure Genome (MSG), a general-purpose multi-scale structural analysis approach (including plate and solid models). However, the cross-sectional analysis doesn’t capture curvatures, taper, ply-drop, and other necessary 3D information. The present work focuses on extended MSG capabilities to compute this information gap using 3D shell elements with computing material layup information without any prior assumptions of kinematics and kinetics. The theoretical and numerical implementation over complex non-prismatic shell structures, like wind turbine blades to generate Timoshenko beam model in OpenSG, is demonstrated. OpenSG is an open-source implementation of MSG based on FEniCSx backend. FEniCSx enables user to translate scientific models in abstract mathematical expressions. OpenSG benefits the research community by leveraging the efficient MSG theory for developing various multi-scale models. Applications of OpenSG to wind blades, deployable, metamaterials, and soft biomaterials will be demonstrated. OpenSG aims for a bigger cause of integration with pyNuMAD to perform extensive structural analysis of realistic wind blades including nonlinear buckling. The performance and accuracy of OpenSG will be validated through 3D FEA models and thereafter will be globally available through GitHub.