Analysis of elastically coupled thick-walled composite blades

A formulation for thick-walled composite blades is devised and implemented numerically. A parametric study which is focused on the in¯uence of wall thickness on the structural behavior of blades, with an emphasize on the elastic couplings induced by composite materials is also presented. In contrast with models for thin-walled blades, the shear stresses perpendicular to the local wall direction are accounted for. The numerical solution is based on a ®nite-di€erence scheme where the displacement ®eld is described by four global displacements for each cross-section and an out-of-plane warping function for each material point. Overall, the solution procedure employs an iterative scheme that enables the inclusion of a large number of independent variables. The results reveal and demonstrate the discrepancies between thick-walled modeling and thin-walled modeling as functions of the wall thickness for various loading modes, and supply a clear indication of regions where employing a thick-walled model is inevitable