An analysis of composite beams

This section details our first case study, which is related to the analysis of a curved composite beam acting as an elastic spring.

Through this case study, you will also become familiar with how to create a custom orthotropic composite material and assign its properties to a collection of composite plies. Furthermore, you will become familiar with the effect of fiber orientations on the behavior of composite structures. Moreover, you will learn the difference between the types of stress available for analysis with composite materials and the type of failure criteria used to estimate their factor of safety. Also covered briefly is the procedure to modify SOLIDWORKS Simulation global settings.

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Problem statement

Figure 8.4a shows a multipurpose prosthetic designed with a fiber-reinforced composite [5]. The structural component of the prosthetic consists of two major segments, BA and AC, as highlighted in Figure 8...