Estimation of effective elastic modulus of composite structures composed of three parts

Abstract

In this study, the theoretical model for estimating the equivalent elastic modulus (tensile modulus E_eq and shear modulus G_eq) of composite structures has been proposed and compared with FE results. In this model, the displacement along the loading direction is assumed to describe the hyperbolic function, and the minimum potential energy scheme is used for deriving unknown parameters in the function. This model was applied to two cases of inhomogeneous structures (honeycomb core with defects and honeycomb sandwich panel), and the effects of the structure's geometry on the relative error were discussed.