Development of an efficient engineering methodology for non‐linear damage and post‐buckling analysis of large‐scale structures

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present an efficient engineering methodology for solving the problem of non‐linear (NL) damage and post‐buckling of large‐scale structures, which is of high importance mainly for the aircraft industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology takes advantage of the capabilities of finite element substructuring technique in the simulation of large/complex structures and exploits the advantages of local‐global analysis logic. The main innovation deals with the appropriate modification of superelement method, such that it can deal with NL behaviour and efficiently model the entire large‐scale structure. In this study, the proposed methodology is demonstrated in the treatment of geometrical non‐linearity and its efficiency is assessed in the case of a large‐scale fuselage section.

Findings

A method capable of solving large‐scale NL problems by taking advantage of the linear response of the different model regions is developed.

Research limitations/implications

Further development of the proposed method is required for handling other means of non‐linearity.

Originality/value

The proposed approach is advantageous in terms of computational effort over the corresponding conventional ones.

Citation

Belesis, S. and Labeas, G. (2010), "Development of an efficient engineering methodology for non‐linear damage and post‐buckling analysis of large‐scale structures", International Journal of Structural Integrity, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 126-139. https://doi.org/10.1108/17579861011053862