Composite Tube Stress concerns

[dean.rose]

I have a composite tube with a specified outer diameter.  The tube is subject to an external torque which leads it to have a specified rotational velocity (rpm).  The tube can be assumed to be simply supported.  How do we define and analyze the tube. The loads we have to worry about are the torque, a bending load due to the weight of the shaft, and stresses due to the rotation.  For the stresses due to torque I am pretty sure I can just use the torque option in the tube menu directly.  For the bending loads, I am pretty sure that I can just take the material density, outer diameter, laminate thickness and tube length and compute an equivalent distributed bending load. Are these ideas correct?

[dean.rose · Accepted solution]

In order to analyze a tube you will focus on using the Tube/Beam Menu items available in Simulation Composite Design.

Lamina Creation

Create your lamina by directly inputting the lamina data or by using a micromechanics model using fiber/matrix level data.

Laminate Creation

Once the lamina has been defined, a laminate can now be created using the lamina material. The laminate module allows users to define your layup, thickness, orientations, etc. Once you save the laminate it can be used in the various Tube/Beam modules.

Analysis Techniques

We have separate modules for bending and torsion that calculate reaction forces, moments, stresses and deflections for each. Simulation Composite Design does not currently account for the centrifugal forces caused by the shaft rotational velocity.