A Novel Higher-Order Zigzag Function Applied to Refined Unified Beam Theory for the Analysis of Composite Laminated Materials

Highly efficient materials and structures are becoming increasingly common in military, aeronautical, aerospace, mechanical, civil engineering applications. Composite have been developed to address the need combine two or more achieve superior properties. Many structural elements, such as laminated beams, use composite materials, but an accurate mathematical model of bending behavior is required due abrupt changes material properties interlaminar zones. This can be achieved using zigzag theory. theory one most commonly used formulations for modeling beams. improvement equivalent single-layer additional term called “zigzag function” represent variation axial displacement along cross section. paper proposes a novel high-order function sinusoidal format. Several higher-order beam theories combined with proposed functions, their performances compared those other functions literature. The results reveal excellent agreement between formulation reference solution well effective combination