Refined structural theories for dynamic and fatigue analyses of structure subjected to random excitations

This paper presents the application of low- and high-fidelity finite beam elements to analyze the dynamic response of aerospace structures subjected to random excitations. The refined structural models are developed with the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF), enabling arbitrary finite element solutions to be easily generated. The solution scheme uses power spectral densities and the modal reduction strategy to reduce the computational burden. The response of an aluminum box beam is studied and compared with a solution obtained by a commercial code. Considering the root-mean-square value of the axial stress, an estimation of the fatigue life of the structure is obtained.