High-Fidelity and Computationally Efficient Component-Wise Structural Models: an Overview of Applications and Perspectives

The Component-Wise approach (CW) is a novel structural modeling strategy that stemmed from the Carrera Unified Formulation (CUF). This work presents an overview of the enhanced capabilities of the CW for the static and dynamic analysis of structures, such as aircraft wings, civil buildings, and composite plates. The CW makes use of the advanced 1D CUF models. Such models exploit Lagrange polynomial expansions (LE) to model the displacement field above the cross-section of the structure. The use of LE allows the improvement of the 1D model capabilities. LE models provide 3D-like accuracies with far fewer computational costs. The use of LE leads to the CW. Although LE are 1D elements, every component of an engineering structure can be modeled via LE elements independently of their geometry, e.g. 2D transverse stiffeners and panels, and of their scale, e.g. fiber/matrix cells. The use of the same type of finite elements facilitates the finite element modeling to a great extent. For instance, no interface techniques are necessary. Moreover, in a CW model, the displacement unknowns are placed along the physical surfaces of the structure with no need for artificial lines and surfaces. Such a feature is promising in a CAD/FEM coupling scenario. The CW approach can be considered as an accurate and computationally cheap analysis tool for many structural problems. Such as progressive failure analyses, multiscale, impact problems and health-monitoring.