A global/local element-wise approach for the buckling and post-buckling analysis of thin multilayered structures

An accurate description of the three-dimensional stress field is mandatory for a reliable analysis and design of structures of aerospace interest. Although this, the computational effort for simulating the behavior of always more sophisticated structures is high. A global/local approach can be employed to cut down the computational time required while keeping a high level of accuracy. This research activity proposes a global/local technique for the buckling and post-buckling analysis of thin multilayered structures. It consists of a multi-step procedure. As a first step, a global analysis is conducted with commercial software Nastran to evaluate both the displacements and the most critical areas. Subsequently, those domains are analyzed locally using the previous displacements as boundary constraints, opportunely manipulated, of a refined higher-order local model of the selected elements. In addition, the conducted analyses regard the large displacement and rotation field, so the geometrically nonlinear analysis is performed at both global and local levels. The results demonstrate the capability and reliability of the proposed approach and assess the importance of using a reliable global/local technique for an accurate design of aerospace components.