Deflection of Thin-Walled Fiber-Reinforced Composite Beams

The deflection of a thin-walled fiber-reinforced anisotropic composite ma terial beam under the action of an applied transverse load is given as a function of the elas tic constants of the composite material panels that form the beam cross-section. A Timoshenko beam theory, that uses a modified form of the shear coefficient that accounts for the different in-plane properties of the panels, is used to find the beam deflection. The minimum attainable deflection depends on finding an optimal combination of the contribu tions from the bending deflection and the shear deflection of the beam. Numerical and graphical results obtained from a computer code allow the user to investigate the effects of different composite material systems and layup configurations in the panels of the beam.