Educational Software for Stress Analysis of Open Thin-Walled Structures

Abstract

Thin-walled structures are commonly employed in aerospace and automotive structures because of their high strength to weight ratio. Design and hence the stress analysis of thin-walled structures is tedious and time-consuming. An educational software which can aid students in stress analysis of thin-walled open sections will enhance the teaching-learning process. With the present available software, the number of sections that can be analysed is limited, hence in this work, a generalized section has been developed through which many new complex sections can be generated and analysed for stresses. The objective of the present work is to develop educational software that will provide a solution for the section properties like centroid, moment of inertia and shear centre, and the stresses on the section for a given loading. The software enables students to select different cross-sections which may be subjected to bending, shear or torsional loads and evaluate the stresses on it. Results obtained through this software have been validated against literature. The software has been developed using MATLAB with graphical user interface (GUI). The software is expected to be a useful tool for effective teaching learning process of courses on thin-walled structures, aircraft structures and advanced mechanics of materials.