Sharif Digital Repository

Tapered composite beams are increasingly being used in various engineering applications such as helicopter yoke, robot arms, and turbine blades. In the present work, the buckling analysis of laminated tapered composite beams is conducted using a higher order finite element formulation. In tapered laminates, the material and geometric discontinuities at ply drop-off locations lead to significant discontinuities in stress distributions. Higher order formulation ensures the continuity of the stress distribution through the thickness of a laminate as well as across the element interfaces, which is very important for the analysis of tapered laminates. In addition, higher order finite element...