Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

NURBS-based isogeometric vibration analysis of generally laminated

deep curved beams with variable curvature
Anh-Tuan Luu, Nam-Il Kim, Jaehong Lee
Department of Architectural Engineering, Sejong University, 98 Kunja Dong, Kwangjin Ku, Seoul 143-747, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Available online 19 August 2014
Keywords:
Isogeometric analysis
Laminated composite
Free vibration
Curved beam
Variable curvature

a b s t r a c t
In this paper, the NURBS-based isogeometric analysis is developed for the free vibration analysis of the
generally laminated Timoshenko-type of deep curved beams with arbitrary curvature. The equivalent
modulus of elasticity is utilized to account for the material couplings of the beam and the deepness term
is exactly integrated into ABD parameters of the curved beam. The geometry and the curvature of the
laminated free-form curved beams are modeled by NURBS so that the gap between the analysis of the
laminated curved beam with constant curvature and the analysis of that with variable curvature is
bridged. All the effects of the axis extensibility, the shear deformation and the rotary inertia are taken
into account. Results of the non-dimensional frequencies for the laminated elliptic and circular curved
beams with different lay-ups are compared with other available results in order to demonstrate the validity of the present isogeometric model. The free vibration analysis of the laminated parabolic curved
beams and the laminated elliptic ring are presented. Particularly, the laminated Tschirnhausens cubic
curved beam is considered to study the dynamic responses as an example of the laminated free-form
curved beam.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The laminated composite materials are nding increased usage
in a wide variety of structural applications in the aerospace, civil
construction, marine and offshore industries during the past four
decades. The curved beam made with the laminated composite
materials are generally used as structural components of lightweight heavy load bearing elements because of the high
strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios, the ability of
being different strengths in different directions and the nature of
being tailored to satisfy the design requirements of strength and
stiffness in practical designs. For a curved beam structure that
may be subjected to dynamic loads, the determination of the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes is critical in the
design process. It is usually the rst step in a dynamic analysis
since a great deal may be deduced concerning the structural
behavior and integrity from the knowledge of its natural frequencies and mode shapes.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 3408 3287; fax: +82 2 3408 3331.
E-mail address: jhlee@sejong.ac.kr (J. Lee).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2014.08.014
0263-8223/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Up to the present, considerable research efforts have been made

for the improved free vibration analysis of curved beams made
with composite materials. Qatu [1] and Qatu and Elsharkawy [2]
applied the classical laminated curved beam theory to the vibration problems of thin arches by using the Ritz method for the simply supported and arbitrary boundaries, respectively. For a
moderately deep laminated arch with highly anisotropic materials,
the natural frequencies may be overestimated since the effects of
shear deformation and rotary inertia are neglected. To take into
account these effects, Qatu [3] developed the rst order shear
deformation theory for moderately deep arches including the
deepness term in the fundamental equations. Ahmed [4,5] studied
the effect of transverse shear deformation for honeycomb sandwich curved beams using the nite element analysis. Raveendranath [6] derived coupled polynomials displacement elds using
element equilibrium equations incorporate geometrical and material couplings in a consistent manner and proposed an efcient
two-node Timoshenko-type laminated curved beam element.
Malekzadeh [7] presented the two-dimensional theory of elasticity
for the free vibration analysis of thick laminated deep circular
arches. The layerwise nite element method was used to obtain
the through-the-thickness discretized forms of the equations of
motion and exact solution was obtained for the simply supported

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

antisymmetric cross-ply laminated arches. Malekzadeh et al. [8]

introduced an efcient hybrid layerwise and differential quadrature method based on the two-dimensional elasticity theory. To
approximate the displacement components in the radial direction,
the layerwise theory was used and the resulting equations of
motion were discretized using the differential quadrature method.
They demonstrated the fast rates of convergence of the method
and its high accuracy with low computational efforts. The equations of motion were derived by Khdeir and Reddy [9] from the
Hamiltons principle for the free and forced vibration of the
cross-ply laminated thin, moderately thick, and thick shallow
arches. The exact natural frequencies were determined for various
end conditions using the state space concept. Recently, Hajianmaleki and Qatu [10] developed a modied rst order shear deformation theory accounting for deepness, laminate coupling, shear
deformation, and rotary inertia for static and free vibration analyses of composite curved beams. They presented the exact solution
for simply supported boundary condition as well as numerical
solutions using the general differential quadrature method for
other boundary conditions. However, the above mentioned studies
are limited for the vibration analysis of laminated curved beams
with constant curvature.
Curved beams with variable curvature used in many engineering applications show the complex structural behavior since deformations of beam depend on the coupled equations between
tangential, radial displacements and rotation by curvature effects.
A number of investigations have been carried out to study the free
vibration behavior of these types of curved beams made of isotropic materials. Oh et al. [11] derived the governing equations to
determine natural frequencies and mode shapes for the shear
deformable non-circular curved beam. They used the determinant
search method combined with the Regular-Falsi method to calculate the natural frequency. Oh et al. [12] also performed the free
vibration analysis of curved beams with variable cross-section considering the axial extensibility and the rotary inertia effects, but
neglected the shear deformation. Some researchers used polynomials or the power series expansion to approximate displacement
eld. Huang et al. [13] and Tseng et al. [14] developed the dynamic
stiffness method based on the Timoshenko curved beam theory
which considers all the effects of axis extensibility, shear deformation, and rotary inertia to study the free vibration of the non-circular curved beams. They decomposed the arch into several
subdomains and the series solution of each subdomain was formulated in terms of polynomials, and then solved in-plane vibration of
laminated arches. Nieh et al. [15] studied the vibrational behavior
of elliptic arches by using the subdomains concept to develop the
displacement eld and Rossi et al. [16] approximated the tangential displacement by using polynomials to solve the in-plane vibration problem of the cantilevered non-circular arches of nonuniform cross-section with a tip mass. Moreover, some used the
suitable trial functions to approximate the displacement eld. For
example, Romanelli and Laura [17] used trial functions of tangential and radial displacements satisfying boundary conditions to
solve the fundamental frequency of the hinged arches and Wang
and Moore [18] utilized assumed displacements satisfying the
elliptic arch with clamped boundary condition to solve the lowest
extensional natural frequency. Tseng et al. [19] incorporated the
dynamic stiffness method and the series solution to acquire an
analytical solution to the free vibration of laminated semi-elliptic
curved beam.
It is well known that the nite element method (FEM) has been
widely used as one of the most versatile and powerful techniques
in the free vibration analysis of curved beams. But it has many
inherent disadvantages including, for instance, complex equation-based calculations of the curvature, the cumbersome task of

151

mesh generation; a higher order is not easy task to construct

conventionally conformable curved beam elements; a time-consuming procedure for the connectivity of elements; re-meshing
in moving boundary problems and so on. Therefore, to overcome
these drawbacks, as an alternative to FEM, a family of the so-called
Isogeometric analysis has been recently introduced by Hughes
et al. [20].
The isogeometric analysis (IGA) has been a powerful computational method that has the ability of integrating the nite element analysis (FEA) and the Computer Aided Design (CAD). The
fundamental concept behind IGA is to utilize the basis functions
that are able to model exactly the geometry from the CAD point
of view for numerical simulations of physical phenomena. It can
be basically achieved by using the B-splines or NURBS (Non-Uniform Ration B-Splines) for the geometrical representation and
invoking the isoparametric concept to dene the unknown eld
variables. A distinct advantage over FEM is that the mesh renement is not only simply accomplished by a automatic communication with the CAD geometry tools, but leaves the geometry
intact. Another intriguing trait of these functions is that they
are typically smooth beyond the classical C 0 -continuity of the
standard FEM. Comprehensive knowledge of IGA could be found
in the text book of Cottrell et al. [21]. This IGA-based approaches
have been used to solve many dynamics problems in a wide
range of research areas. Realy [22] and Cottrell et al. [23] presented the free vibration study of EulerBernoulli beams and KirchhoffLove plates by using exact geometrical isogeometric
models. Later, Shojaee et al. [24] and Thai et al. [25] implemented
NURBS-based isogeometric formulation to investigate the natural
frequencies and mode shapes of laminated composite plates governed by KirchhoffLove and ReissnerMindlin theory, respectively. The free vibration of Timoshenko straight beams with
the isogeometric approach was carried out by Lee and Park
[26]. Nagy et al. [27] implemented a NURBS-based control mesh
to nd the optimal shape for the maximum natural frequency
of EulerBernoulli curved beams.
From the previously cited references, one can note that despite
extensive research for the vibration analysis of the non-circular
curved beams made of isotropic materials, to the authors knowledge, Ref. [19] is the only study reported on the free vibration analysis of laminated composite curved beams with variable curvature.
Besides, it is well known that NURBS have the ability to model freeform curves accurately while the previous literature is based on
the complex separate equations to represent the length and the
curvature of curved beams. Therefore, that gives us a strong motivation to obtain the accurate natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes of laminated composite free-form curved beams
using the NURBS-based isogeometric analysis.
In this paper, the NURBS-based isogeometric nite element
analysis is modeled based on the rened Timoshenko-type of laminated curved beam theory using the equivalent modulus of elasticity and modied ABD parameters which account for the
material coupling and the deepness term, respectively. The NURBS
basis functions are used instead of traditional Lagrange interpolation functions, therefore, geometries and curvatures of the curved
beams can be modeled accurately. Furthermore, the h-, p- and
k-renement strategies are implemented to create the NURBS elements with high orders and high continuities. The verication of
the present model is obtained by comparing the current results
with previously published works for the laminated elliptic and circular curved beams and excellent agreements are observed. Then,
laminated parabolic curved beams, laminated full elliptic rings,
and laminated Tschirnhausens cubic curved beams with various
lay-ups, rise to span length, slenderness and orthotropy ratios are
taken into account for the investigation of free vibration behaviors.

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A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

2. Laminated curved beam theory

Nb

h=2

rdz

6a

rzdz

6b

sdz

6c

h=2

2.1. Kinematic relationship

Mb
In this study, the laminated composite beam with rectangular
cross-section of width b and thickness h is characterized by its
middle surface. The beam is composed of layers of orthotropic
material oriented at arbitrary angle h with respect to the longitudinal axis. Fig. 1 shows the geometry and positive sign conventions
of the laminated curved beam with variable curvature in a righthanded curvilinear coordinate system (x; z), in which x is the curvilinear coordinate coincides with the centroidal axis and z is the
coordinate perpendicular to the center line in-plane of curved
beam; j is the curvature; u and v are the tangential and radial displacements, respectively, of the beam middle surface material
point; w is the bending rotation of the beam cross section about
the out-of-plane axis; N is the axial force, M and Q are the bending
moment and the shear force, respectively.
In the displacement-based formulation, the assumed displacement eld is presented as:

 x; z; t ux; t zwx; t
u
 z; t wx; t
wx;

1a
1b

 and w
 are the generalized displacements along the x and z
where u
directions, respectively; t is the time. The middle surface strains and
the curvature change are given by

o u0 jw

c w0 w  ju
v w0

3
4

where o is the middle surface strain, c is the shear strain at the

neutral axis and v is the curvature change. The superscript prime
refers to differentiation with respect to x. The normal strain at an
arbitrary point can be found from

1
o zv
1 jz

2.2. Generalized constitutive relations

The force and moment resultants are the integrals of the stresses over the beam thickness as follows:

Z
Z

Q b

h=2
h=2
h=2

h=2

where r and s are the normal and shear stresses, respectively. The
above equations may be rewritten as:
m Z
X
Nb

zk

rdz

7a

rzdz

7b

sdz

7c

k1 zk1
m Z zk
X

Mb
Q b

k1 zk1
m Z zk
X
zk1

k1

where m is the number of layers and zk and zk1 are the z coordinates of the top and bottom of the kth layer as shown in Fig. 1.
It is well known that the issue of couplings appear in laminates
with arbitrary lay-up, thus the in-plane and out-of-plane vibrations need to be solved together. However, Hajianmaleki and Qatu
[10] showed that the purely in-plane free vibration behavior of
laminated curved beams can be accurately achieved with any of
stacking sequence by using equivalent modulus of elasticity of
each lamina. The equivalent modulus of elasticity of each lamina
is found based on the following equation:

1
Exk



4
cos4 hk
1
2m12
sin hk
2
cos2 hk sin hk


E11
G12
E22
E11

where Exk is the equivalent modulus; E11 and E22 are elastic moduli
along directions parallel and perpendicular to ber, respectively;
G12 and m12 are the shear modulus and the Poisson ratio,
respectively.
The stressstrain relationship for any layer of the laminate can
be written as:

r Ek
x 
k

s Q 55
f zc

9a
9b

 55 is the shear modulus and f z is the shear correction

where Q
function. Assuming parabolic distribution through the thickness,
the shear correction function is given by [28]

f z

"

2 #
5
z
1
4
h=2

10

Substituting Eqs. (9a) and (9b) into Eqs. (7a)(7c), utilizing Eq. (5)
and carrying out the integration over the thickness piecewise, from
layer to layer, yields:

8 9 2
A11
>
<N >
=
6
M 4 B11
>
: >
;
Q
0

38 9
>
<e >
=
7
0 5 v
>
: >
c;
A55

B11

D11
0

11

where the A11 ; B11 ; D11 and A55 are the stiffness coefcients arising
from the piecewise integration:
A11

m
X

1 jzk
1 jzk1


12a




1 jzk
1 jzk1
" (
2 
2 )

#
m
1X
1
1
2
1
1 jzk
k 1
D11
bEx
zk 
zk1
 zk  zk1  2 ln
2
j k1
j
j
j
j
1 jzk1


m
5X
4
k
3
3

A55
bQ
zk  zk1  2 lnzk  zk1
4 k1 55
3h

B11

Fig. 1. Dening sketch for curve beam with variable curvature.

m
1X
k
bEx ln

j k1
1

j k1

bEx

1
zk  zk1  ln

12b
12c
12d

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For harmonic vibrations we assume

2.3. Equations of motion

The strain energy stored in a beam during elastic deformation is

1
2

No M v Q cdx

13

Writing the strain energy functional for the kth lamina, and
summing for the whole laminate yields

1
2



A11 2o 2B11 o v D11 v2 A55 c2 dx

14

Substituting Eqs. (2)(4) into the above energy expression yields

the strain energy functional in terms of the slope and displacements
U

1
2


Z Lh
i
2
2
2
A11 u0 jw 2B11 u0 jww0 D11 w0 A55 w0 w  ju dx

ux; t uf x cos xt

24a

wx; t wf x cos xt

24b

wx; t wf x cos xt

24c

where x is the natural frequency; uf ; wf , and wf are the amplitudes

of the harmonically varying tangential, radial, and sectional rotation
motions, respectively. Introducing Eqs. (24a)(24c) into Eqs. (21)
(23), the following equations of motion are obtained:


A11 u0f jwf B11 w00f A55 j w0f wf  juf



25
x2 I1 2jI2 j2 I3 uf I2 jI3 wf 0

0
 A11 j u0f jwf  B11 jw0f A55 w0f wf  juf I1 x2 wf 0
26




D11 w0f B11 u0f jwf  A55 w0f wf  juf x2 I2 jI3 uf I3 wf 0
27

15

The kinetic energy for the entire beam including the rotary inertia is expressed from the study of Qatu [3]

b
2

n

zk

o2

q 1 jzu_ zw_


_ 2 dzdx
w

16

zk1

where qk is the mass density and the over dot denotes differentiation with respect to t. Integrating over z and summing for m number of layers yields

1
2

h
i

_ 2 2I2 jI3 u_ w_ I3 w_ 2 dx
I1 2jI2 j2 I3 u_ 2 I1 w

17
where

I1
I2
I3

m
X
bqk zk  zk1
k1
m
X

bqk

k1
m
X

bqk

k1

18a

1 2
zk  z2k1
2

18b

1 3
z  z3k1
3 k

18c

The work done by the distributed external force components px

in the tangential direction and pn in the normal direction, and pm in
the rotation as the beam displaces is

px u pn w pm wdx

19

By means of Hamiltons principle, the above energy expressions can

be shown to be consistent with the equations of motion and the
kinematical relations. This requires taking the variation of the
energy functional (UTW) between two arbitrary instants of time
t 1 and t 2 .

t2

U  T  W dt 0

20

t1

Hamiltons principle requires the coefcients of du; dw, and dw

to vanish independently. The three equations of motion can be
obtained by separating the terms multiplied by the variation of
u; w, and w, respectively, as follows:

3. An isogeometric formulation for laminated free-form curved

beams
This section shortly represents main features of NURBS as well
as the application of IGA for the free vibration of a free-form curved
beam. The NURBS curve and NURBS basis functions are constructed
in the following. The details for NURBS-based geometry could be
found in the NURBS book of Piegl and Tiller [29].
3.1. NURBS basis functions
The NURBS is derived from B-splines which are piecewise polynomial curves composed of linear combinations of B-spline basis
functions. The primary components of NURBS basis function is a


knot vector H g1 ; g2 ; . . . ; gnp1 which is a set of non-decreasth

ing real numbers in the interval g1 ; gnp1 . Here, gi 2 R is the i

knot, i is the knot index, i 1; 2; . . . ; n p 1 , p is the polynomial
order and n is the number of basis functions. The intervals
h
i
g1 ; gnp1 and gi ; gi1 are called a patch and a knot span, respectively [29]. A knot vector is called open and uniform if the rst and
the last knot have the multiplicity p 1 and the other knots are in
uniform space, respectively. Based on an uniform open knot vector
H, B-spline basis functions Bi;p g are dened recursively starting
with piecewise constants p 0 as follows:

Bi;0 g

21
0

 A11 ju0 jw  B11 jw0 A55 w0 w  ju I1 w

22

I3 w 23
D11 w B11 u jw  A55 w w  ju I2 jI3 u
0

1 if gi 6 g < gi1
0

otherwise

28

For p 1; 2; 3; . . ., they are dened by

Bi;p g

gip1  g
g  gi
B
g
B
g
gip  gi i;p1
gip1  gi1 i1;p1

29

Fig. 2 shows an example of the quadratic B-spline basis functions for the open and non-uniform knot vectors. If the internal
knot has multiplicity k, the basis functions are C pk -continuous at
that knot. In addition, the basis functions are interpolatory at the
ends of the interval and at the knot whose multiplicity is p (C 0 -continuous). A piecewise polynomial B-spline curves Cg are dened
by a linear combination of B-spline basis functions and coefcients
over the parametric space. The coefcients are points in d-dimensional physical space Rd , referred to as control points.

A11 u0 jw B11 w00 A55 jw0 w  ju



I2 jI3 w
I1 2jI2 j2 I3 u
00

153

Cg

n
X
Bi;p gPi

30

i1

The control points Pi 2 Rd ; i 1; 2; . . . ; n construct the control polygon. The B-spline curve generated by the knot vector
H f0; 0; 0; 1; 2; 3; 3; 4; 5; 5; 5g and 8 control points is shown in Fig. 2.

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A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Fig. 2. B-spline curve and its corresponding quadratic basis functions with open, non-uniform knot vector H f0; 0; 0; 1; 2; 3; 3; 4; 5; 5; 5g.

As mentioned before, NURBS is abbreviation for Non-Uniform

Rational B-Spline. The term Non-Uniform refers to the knot vector which is not uniform. The term Rational refers to the basis
functions which are piecewise rational polynomials. Rational BSpline in Rd is the projection onto d-dimensional physical space
of the polynomial B-spline dened in (d 1)-dimensional homogeneous coordinate space. The rational polynomial curve is generated
by the projective transformation of the B-spline curve. Homogeneous (d 1)-dimensional control points are as follows:

Pw
j i P j i ;
Pw
d1 i

j 1; 2; . . . ; d

wi

31
32

where wi are known as weights. The non-rational (d 1)-dimensional B-spline curve is expressed from Eq. (30) as follows:

Cw g

n
X
Bi;p gPw
i

33

i1

Applying the projective transformation to Cw g yields the corresponding rational B-spline curve.

Pn
Bi;p gwi Pi Xn
Cg Pi1

N gPi
n
i1 i;p
i1 Bi;p gwi

34

If the knot vector is non-uniform, NURBS basis functions for the

NURBS curve are dened as follows:

Bi;p gwi
Ni;p g Pn
:
i1 Bi;p gwi
h

35

The domain g1 ; gnp1 is considered as a patch. Important properties of NURBS basis functions are as follows:

Fig. 3. Geometrical and afne mappings for integration by Gaussian quadrature on

NURBS elements of curved beam.

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

155

Fig. 4. Semi-elliptic curve modeled exactly by NURBS: unrened and h-rened curves with their corresponding basis.

P
Partition of unity, i.e. ni1 N i;p g 1.
Non-negativity, i.e. N i;p g P 0.
Local
support,
i.e. N i;p g are non-zero only in the interval
h
i
gi ; gip1 .
Pn
 Linear independence, i.e.
() bi 0; i 1;
i1 bi N i;p g 0
2; . . . ; n.





3.2. NURBS-based nite element formulation

The NURBS basis functions constructed become the nite element basis functions for the approximate displacement eld. The
degrees of freedom are the control variables and located at the control points. The number of nite elements are computed as the
number of non-zero knot spans.
In development of the NURBS-based nite element model, a
typical element of a free-form curve beam which is dened in
^e  X
^ and the curvilinear domain
the parametric domain X
Xe  X, is considered as shown in Fig. 3. The fundamental difference between the NURBS-based FEA and the conventional one is
that in the new approach, the NURBS basis functions which are
capable of exactly representing the known geometry are chosen
to approximate the unknown solution elds. The arrangement of
NURBS coordinate in Eq. (35) is inverted into the nite element
notation for the case of one-dimensional parametric space. It
should be noted that the beam is the one-dimensional element
in the curvilinear and parametric spaces but its geometry is

described in the two-dimensional physical rectangular space

n; f. The geometry a n; f of the curved beam is dened based
on NURBS functions and control points as shown in Eq. (34) and
the solution eld uf uf ; wf ; hf is described as follows:

a ae g

nen
X
Ni gPei
i1
nen
X

uf  uef g

Ni guei

36
37

i1

where
 Pi n i ; fi are the control points and the coefcients
uei uei ; wei ; hei are denoted as control variables, nen is the number
of control points for each element. The x-curvilinear coordinate,
the Jacobian of transformation, the curvature are calculated, respectively, as follows:

s

2 
2
dn
df
xg

dg0
dg0
dg0
g0 0
s
 2  2
dx
dn
df
J g

dg
dg
dg
Z

g0 g

dn d2 f

jg dg dg

 ddfg
J3

d2 n
dg2

38
39
40

In the following, substituting Eq. (37) into weak forms of Eqs.

(25)(27), the nite element model of a typical element can be
expressed as the standard eigenvalue problem.

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A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Fig. 5. Semi-elliptic curve modeled exactly by NURBS: unrened and p-rened curves with their corresponding basis.

K  x2 M u 0

41

21
K 12
ij K ji

where K is the element stiffness matrix given by

K11

6
K 4 K21
31

K12
K22
32

3
K13
7
K23 5
33

31
K 13
ij K ji

42
32
K 23
ij K ji

where

K 11
ij
K 22
ij
K 33
ij

Le1

Le
Le1


A11 N0i N0j A55 j2 Ni Nj dx


A11 j2 Ni Nj A55 N0i N0j dx

Le1

Le


D11 N0i N0j A55 Ni Nj dx

Z
L

Z
L

Le1
e

Le1
e

Le1

Le


A11 jN0i Nj  A55 jNi N 0j dx


A55 jNi Nj B11 N 0i N0j dx


A55 N0i Nj B11 jNi N0j dx

43

and M is the element mass matrix given by

M11
6
M4 0
M
where

31

0
M22
0

M13

7
0 5

33

44

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

157

Fig. 6. Semi-elliptic curve modeled exactly by NURBS: unrened and k-rened curves with their corresponding basis.

M11
ij
M22
ij
M33
ij
M13
ij

Z
Z
Z

Le1
Le



I1 2jI2 j2 I3 Ni Nj dx

Le1

I1 N i Nj dx

Le
L

45

e1

Le

M 31
ji

I3 N i Nj dx

Le1
Le

element in the parametric space is mapped into its corresponding

element in the physical space as shown in Fig. 3. In order to transform from the parametric space to the parent element, an afne
mapping is used [21]. The parametric coordinates of the quadrature
^ e jX
^ e g ; g  is transformed from its reference elepoint g 2 X
i
i1
~ e as follows:
~2X
ment coordinate g

I2 jI3 Ni Nj dx

The assembly follows the standard nite element procedure. The

standard GaussLegendre quadrature is used for numerical integration over the parametric domain. In the isogeometric analysis, each


1 
gi1  gi g~ gi1 gi
2

46

Remarks on the present isogeometric model are:

(1) The x-curvilinear coordinate (arc-length) and curvature j
become functions of variable g in the parametric space, as
shown in Eqs. (38) and (40), respectively, thus the free-form

158

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Table 1
p
 i xi l2 qA=E11 I for the clampedclamped 0 =90  cross-ply semi-elliptic curved beam with NURBS-based renement
Convergence rate of non-dimensional frequencies x
schemes when b=a 0:4 and E11 =E22 10.
p

nel a

10

8
16
32
64
128

24.2612
22.5021
22.4223
22.4209
22.4208

34.0980
30.0796
29.9103
29.9069
29.9068

86.3093
69.9474
68.5922
68.5655
68.5648

141.7366
89.3347
87.0118
86.9583
86.9567

246.458
150.832
141.074
140.857
140.851

348.315
185.972
171.163
170.794
170.783

589.975
281.285
240.765
239.663
239.633

706.564
319.978
274.430
273.035
272.995

968.850
453.363
365.678
361.680
361.575

1018.836
476.727
376.232
373.365
373.285

8
16
32
64
128

22.8937
22.4277
22.4209
22.4208
22.4208

30.7788
29.9220
29.9069
29.9068
29.9068

75.5159
68.7185
68.5660
68.5648
68.5648

100.4230
87.3165
86.9592
86.9567
86.9567

194.717
142.597
140.863
140.851
140.851

237.125
174.577
170.805
170.783
170.783

379.578
251.580
239.712
239.632
239.631

432.832
289.954
273.107
272.994
272.993

707.531
406.368
361.966
361.573
361.570

928.524
414.493
373.589
373.284
373.282

8
16
32
64
128

22.4726
22.4213
22.4208
22.4208
22.4208

30.0818
29.9079
29.9068
29.9068
29.9068

70.3021
68.5782
68.5648
68.5648
68.5648

90.6123
86.9979
86.9567
86.9567
86.9567

152.695
141.151
140.851
140.851
140.851

199.345
171.498
170.784
170.783
170.783

338.509
243.235
239.635
239.631
239.631

366.477
278.064
273.000
272.993
272.993

561.025
381.609
361.599
361.570
361.570

573.499
388.406
373.307
373.282
373.282

8
16
32
64

22.4303
22.4208
22.4208
22.4208

29.9362
29.9068
29.9068
29.9068

68.8925
68.5663
68.5648
68.5648

87.4927
86.9614
86.9567
86.9567

146.895
140.912
140.851
140.851

183.847
170.937
170.783
170.783

263.686
240.539
239.631
239.631

322.192
274.870
272.993
272.993

431.815
369.275
361.570
361.570

568.475
379.844
373.282
373.282

22.421

29.907

68.568

86.959

140.86

170.789

Ref. [19]
a

Mode

Number of elements used for IGA.

Table 2
p
 i xi l2 qA=E11 I for the clampedclamped semi-elliptic curved beam generated by 32 quintic NURBS elements.
Non-dimensional frequencies x
Lay-up

0 =90 

E11 =E22

10

b=a

0.4
0.6
0.8

30

0.4
0.6
0.8

45 

30

0.4
0.6
0.8

Mode
1

This study
Ref. [19]
This study
Ref. [19]
This study
Ref. [19]

22.421
22.421
16.492
16.492
12.182
12.182

29.907
29.907
26.874
26.875
23.592
23.593

68.565
68.568
54.476
54.479
45.007
45.010

86.957
86.959
78.501
78.505
67.964
67.968

140.85
140.86
118.30
118.31
99.351
99.357

170.78
170.79
153.99
154.00
131.79
131.80

This study
Ref. [19]
This study
Ref. [19]
This study
Ref. [19]

18.047
18.047
13.271
13.271
9.8037
9.8041

23.903
23.903
21.531
21.531
18.935
18.935

54.517
54.519
43.451
43.453
35.997
35.999

68.992
68.994
62.437
62.440
54.196
54.198

110.51
110.51
93.453
93.459
78.832
78.836

134.97
134.98
121.56
121.57
104.27
104.28

This study
Ref. [19]
This study
Ref. [19]
This study
Ref. [19]

9.4454
9.4456
6.9498
6.9501
5.1428
5.1430

12.504
12.504
11.307
11.307
9.9417
9.9421

28.952
28.954
23.021
23.022
19.013
19.014

36.081
36.082
32.981
32.982
28.652
28.654

59.655
59.659
50.130
50.133
42.074
42.076

69.352
69.355
64.089
64.092
55.465
55.468

Table 3
p
~ i xi L2 qA=E11 I for the simply supported circular curved beam generated by 16 quintic NURBS elements.
Non-dimensional frequencies x
Lay-up

Mode

jL 1

jL 2

This study

Exact solution [10]

3D FEM [10]

This study

Exact solution [10]

3D FEM [10]

45 4

1
2
3
4
5

2.8301
12.483
27.841
47.971
71.904

2.830
12.48
27.84
47.97
71.90

2.871
12.51
27.82
47.72
71.16

1.65949
11.120
26.484
46.667
70.667

1.659
11.12
26.48
46.67
70.67

1.682
11.17
26.52
46.48
70.00

30 2 =60 2 

1
2
3
4
5

2.9514
13.004
28.928
49.688
74.232

2.951
13.00
28.93
49.69
74.23

3.002
13.07
28.96
49.50
73.53

1.7381
11.670
27.733
48.697
73.457

1.738
11.67
27.73
48.70
73.46

1.765
11.75
27.83
48.52
72.74

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A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Fig. 8. Variation of the non-dimensional frequencies for the [0 =90 ] cross-ply
laminated parabolic curved beams with respect to the rise to span length ratio s=l
when l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15.

Fig. 7. Schematic and NURBS-based geometrical modeling of the parabolic curved

beam.

curved beam is completely modeled by NURBS. An analogue

in the traditional FEA does not exist when the Lagrange
interpolation functions are implemented to approximate
the unknown solution eld and a series of complex equations are used to model the arc-length and curvature.
(2) The selective reduced integration technique is implemented
in this study in consistency with the standard FEA. Unlike
the standard C 0 Lagrange curved beam elements widely used
in FEA, the shear and membrane locking still happen in the
quadratic NURBS curved beam elements as stated in the

work of Bouclier et al. [30]. However, in this study, the

authors are interested in the use of higher orders of NURBS
basis functions where the locking is not a problem (see
[26,31]).
3.3. NURBS-based renement strategies
It is well known in FEA that the accuracy in solutions increases
by using renement strategies. In NURBS-based isogeometric modeling, it is interesting that the basis could be enriched by the knot
insertion and the order elevation while leaving the geometry
unchanged. These two methods could be efciently utilized in
the isogeometric analysis. The insertion of new knot values

Table 4
p
 i xi l2 qA=E11 I for clampedclamped parabolic laminated curved beams (l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15).
Non-dimensional frequencies x
Mode

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

s=l 0:2

s=l 0:3

s=l 0:4

0 =90 s

0 =90 

45 

0 =90 s

0 =90 

45 

0 =90 s

0 =90 

45 

21.6413
27.1837
38.5170
52.3080
66.6394
68.3572
83.8598
98.8660
114.096
126.978

17.2559
25.3212
33.4206
45.4861
59.9970
61.1156
76.5150
92.0394
100.064
107.658

11.8658
12.4792
24.3329
28.2473
37.1108
50.3288
55.0703
64.9821
79.9128
81.1523

17.9134
30.7576
35.6189
46.5890
61.0900
61.5902
75.3235
89.0755
103.040
116.608

13.9881
26.2063
34.5662
40.0719
54.1081
55.3851
68.0975
82.1973
94.8080
96.4856

9.88571
14.1695
20.4878
26.3600
31.6964
43.7696
51.2519
56.7541
70.1985
74.3427

14.7627
27.7674
36.1985
40.7361
53.8305
55.6483
66.8320
79.2173
91.9241
104.503

11.1646
22.5114
34.4173
36.5283
47.0047
50.1966
59.5825
72.1018
85.0655
91.4911

7.74356
15.1213
16.9296
24.0543
26.4072
37.1602
48.0168
48.6140
60.5729
67.4113

Table 5
p
 i xi l2 qA=E11 I for hinged-hinged parabolic laminated curved beams (l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15).
Non-dimensional frequencies x
Mode

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

s=l 0:2

s=l 0:3

s=l 0:4

0 =90 s

0 =90 

45 

0 =90 s

0 =90 

45 

0 =90 s

0 =90 

45 

18.6686
26.4386
36.2992
51.5991
66.5268
67.8499
83.5797
98.6890
114.002
126.744

13.1388
20.4995
27.6468
41.7188
50.8060
58.7063
75.1446
90.0902
96.8193
106.953

8.47157
11.4371
19.4705
28.2461
32.4902
46.4224
54.9228
61.5565
77.1360
81.1523

14.8223
30.2290
33.4764
45.6463
60.4726
61.5190
74.9771
88.8567
102.915
116.440

10.4170
21.9298
28.6611
35.7072
47.4337
51.4845
66.5041
80.6326
91.4110
95.6637

6.50481
14.1504
15.9959
26.3407
27.3166
39.8066
51.2346
53.2767
67.2803
74.3373

11.6921
25.6860
35.6720
39.5262
53.0903
55.6286
66.4112
78.9471
91.7617
104.383

8.10560
18.0535
29.6074
31.4725
43.9380
44.1419
57.5782
70.7315
84.1955
88.0149

4.95711
12.7640
15.3845
22.3305
24.0610
33.3451
45.1734
48.0106
57.5910
67.3191

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A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Fig. 9. Variation of the non-dimensional frequencies for the [0 =90 ] cross-ply
laminated parabolic curved beams with respect to the slenderness ratio l=r when
s=l 0:2 and E11 =E22 15.

corresponds to the h-renement of the traditional FEA since the

number of element is raised. The order elevation has common features with the classical p-renement strategy in FEA because it
increases the polynomial order of the basis. When the order of
basis is elevated, the multiplicity of knot values increases correspondingly in order to preserve the continuity across elements.
Subsequently if a unique knot is inserted in a non-zero knot span,
the continuity across the new elements is reduced by one. This
mechanism of mesh renement in analysis is known as the krenement.
Figs. 46, depict these three renement strategies for the case of
the elliptic curve. The initial geometry is generated by two nonzero knot spans of quadratic basis functions as shown in
Fig. 4(a). The h-renement technique is implemented in the initial
curve by putting 2 or 6 knot values to create the rened curves in
Figs. 4(b) or (c), respectively. It is realized that the h-renement
strategy creates NURBS elements with higher continuities. The
two C 0 =C 0 -quadratic NURBS elements of initial curve result the
four and eight quadratic elements with C 1 -continuity across the
new interior element boundaries. For the p-renement strategy,
the order of basis for the initial quadratic elements is elevated to
generate the cubic, quartic or quintic elements and the continuity
of these new elements are preserved, as shown in Fig. 5(b)-(d).
Finally, the k-renement is utilized by h-renement of the
presented p- renement curves. The basis is enriched with higher
continuity as well as polynomial order. Fig. 6 shows 4 elements
of cubic, quartic, and quintic basis functions with C 2 -, C 3 - or C 4 interior continuity at the new element boundaries, respectively,
by using the k-renement technique. It should be noted that two
adjacent elements share 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 control points if they are
C 0 -, C 1 -, C 2 -, C 3 - or C 4 -continuous across their common boundary,
respectively.

existing results shown in literatures. The major and minor radii

of the semi-elliptic curved beam are denoted as a and b, respectively. Therefore the length of span l is equal to 2a. The unrened
geometry of the elliptic curved beam has two quadratic NURBS elements created by ve control points. The h-, p-, and k-renement
techniques are implemented for generating quadratic, cubic, quartic, and quintic NURBS elements on rened curves as described in
details in Figs. 46.
The 0 =90  cross-ply semi-elliptic curved beam is considered
to examine the convergence properties of the present IGA model.
The following elastic properties are chosen for the composite
material utilized in the laminate stacking sequences:
E11 =E22 10; G12 =E22 G13 =E22 0:6; G23 =E22 0:5; m12 0:25 and
p
E11 =q 103 denotes the quantitative relation between the elastic modulus E11 and the volume mass density q. The slenderness
ratio l=r 200, where r is the radius of gyration of the cross-sectional area. The rates of convergence for the lowest ten non-dimensional frequencies of the curved beam with clampedclamped end
constraint and the ratio of minor radius to major radius b=a 0:4
are presented in Table 1. The non-dimensional frequencies are
p
 i xi l2 qA=E11 I where A is the cross-sectional area
dened as x
3

and I bh =12 is the moment of inertia. The present results are

compared with analytical solutions achieved by Tseng et al. [19]
for the rst six non-dimensional frequencies. It is found from
Table 1 that the results from this study are in excellent agreement
with the analytical solutions. Besides, it is a denite strength point
that renement strategies allow IGA to converge efciently to the
expected results. It can be realized from the rst ve lines of Table 1
that by using the h-renement, the accuracy of the present IGAbased solution is increased as the number of elements is increased
from 8 to 128. The more efcient technique, k-renement, with
higher order, higher continuity of NURBS gives fast convergence
speed. With the aid of the k-renement, the rst ten non-dimensional frequencies converge with 32 quintic elements. It can be
noted here that the 32 quintic NURBS elements are generated from
41 control points which correspond to 41  3 123 DOFs.
In Table 2, the non-dimensional frequencies for the rst six
modes of the clampedclamped semi-elliptic curved beams with
0 =90  cross-ply and 45  angle-ply lay-ups by 32 quintic elements are given with the different orthotropy ratios: E11 =E22 10
and 30, and various values of b=a. It is seen from Table 2 that the

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Convergence study and verication
In order to validate the accuracy and applicability of the isogeometric nite element analysis framework developed by this study,
numerical results for the semi-elliptic curved beam with clamped
clamped boundary condition are presented and compared with

Fig. 10. Variation of the non-dimensional frequencies for the [0 =90 ] cross-ply
laminated parabolic curved beams with respect to the orthotropy ratio E11 =E22
when s=l 0:2 and l=r 30.

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

161

Fig. 11. The rst ten mode shapes of the [0 =90 ] cross-ply parabolic curved beam with clampedclamped end constraint (s=l 0:2; l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15). Solid and
dashed lines represent deformed and undeformed congurations, respectively.

.
.
.

. . . .
.
.
.
..
.
. . . .

.
.
.

Fig. 12. Quintic NURBS ellipse with the knot vector H f0; 0; 0; 0; 0; 0; 1; 1; 1; 1;
1; 2; 2; 2; 2; 2; 3; 3; 3; 3; 3; 4; 4; 4; 4; 4; 4g and 21 control points of 4 C 0 =C 0 NURBS
elements.

present IGA results and those given by the dynamic stiffness analysis [19] are very consistent for all cases considered.
Next, the laminated circular beam with simply supported boundary condition and with a rectangular cross-section having 1 m
length, 0.025 m width, and 0.05 m height is considered. The material
properties
are:
E11 138 GPa,
E22 8:96 GPa,
m12 0:3;
G12 7:1 GPa, G13 G23 3:44 GPa and q 1580 kg=m3 [10].
Table 3 shows the lowest ve non-dimensional frequencies
p
~ i xi L2 qA=E11 I (L is the arc-length of curved beam) with 45 4 
x
and 30 2 =60 2  lay-ups which have the bending-twisting and
stretching-twisting couplings. The present results are compared
with the exact solution by Hajianmaleki and Qatu [10] and results
from 3D FEA [10] using the ANSYS nite element code. One can
see from Table 3 that by using the present NURBS-based IGA model,
accurate results are achieved with any kind of stacking sequences.
4.2. Parabolic curved beams
The free vibration behavior of the laminated parabolic curved
beam is described based on the present NURBS-based IGA frame-

162

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

Table 6
p
 i xi 2a2 qA=E11 I for elliptical rings with various a=b ratios (2a=r 30 and E11 =E22 15).
Non-dimensional frequencies x

a=b

Lay-up

1.0

0 =90 s
0 =90 
45 

8.14860
5.18162
3.27953

8.14860
5.18162
3.27953

19.1996
13.5300
8.90911

19.1996
13.5300
8.90911

30.8256
23.5062
16.2323

30.8256
23.5062
16.2323

1.2

0 =90 s
0 =90 
45 

9.30353
6.06015
3.84563

9.42710
6.15518
3.89586

21.5404
15.6207
10.3696

21.5454
15.6214
10.3739

34.2885
26.8872
18.8061

34.2907
26.8900
18.8072

1.4

0 =90 s
0 =90 
45 

10.1379
6.71648
4.28504

10.5892
7.07082
4.47114

23.1331
17.1155
11.4499

23.1693
17.1263
11.4836

36.7636
29.3613
20.7791

36.7873
29.3915
20.7906

1.6

0 =90 s
0 =90 
45 

10.7424
7.20654
4.62816

11.6597
7.93610
5.00982

24.1878
18.1582
12.2221

24.2955
18.2032
12.3295

38.5281
31.1494
22.2703

38.6069
31.2502
22.3157

1.8

0 =90 s
0 =90 
45 

11.1885
7.57973
4.90175

12.6571
8.75748
5.51629

24.8659
18.8705
12.7556

25.0875
18.9857
12.9884

39.7936
32.4458
23.3657

39.9592
32.6585
23.4971

2.0

0 =90 s
0 =90 
45 

11.5256
7.87227
5.12587

13.5950
9.53972
5.99424

25.2807
19.3413
13.1068

25.6551
19.5689
13.5163

40.7121
33.3986
24.4222

40.9866
33.7534
24.5693

Mode
1

curved beam with clampedclamped and hinged-hinged boundary

conditions with respect to the rise to span length ratio s=l, the slenderness ratio l=r and the orthotropy ratio E11 =E22 is shown in
Figs. 810, respectively. From these gures, it is realized that when
s=l; l=r or E11 =E22 varies, the lowest frequency can change from the
symmetric mode to the anti-symmetric one and the crossover frequency, which is dened when the curved beam can vibrate in
either one of two modes, is seen to occur. (1) The crossover is found
for the clampedclamped and hinged-hinged curved beams as the
value of the s=l ratio is around 0.12 and 0.13, respectively in Fig. 8.
(2) The same phenomenon occur only for the curved beam with the
hinged-hinged end constraint and the corresponding value of the
slenderness ratio is close to 18 in Fig. 9. (3) The crossover frequency is only seen for the clampedclamped parabolic curved
beam when E11 =E22  3 in Fig. 10. The rst ten mode shapes for
the 0 =90  cross-ply laminated parabolic curved beam with the
clampedclamped boundary condition, s=l 0:2; l=r 30 and
E11 =E22 15 are depicted in Fig. 11.
Fig. 13. Variation of the non-dimensional frequencies for the [0 =90 ] cross-ply
laminated elliptic ring with respect to the slenderness ratio l=r with different
orthotropy ratios when a=b 1:6.

work. The schematic and NURBS-based geometrical modeling of

the parabolic curved beam with the length of span l and the rise
s are depicted in Fig. 7. Tables 4 and 5 tabulate the lowest ten
 with various ratios of beam rise
non-dimensional frequencies x
to span length s=l for clampedclamped and hinged-hinged boundary conditions, respectively. The results are obtained by using 32
quintic elements. The material properties are the same as the previous example described in the convergence test but it is assumed
that the orthotropy ratio E11 =E22 15 and the slenderness ratio
l=r 30 for the results given in Tables 4 and 5. It is seen that the
non-dimensional frequencies decrease signicantly as the stacking
sequence of the laminated parabolic curved beam changes from
the 0 =90 s symmetric cross-ply to the 0 =90  cross-ply to the
45  angle-ply for all ten modes listed. Besides, the non-dimensional frequencies of the hinged-hinged parabolic curved beam is
smaller than those of the clampedclamped parabolic curved
beam, as expected. The variation of the non-dimensional frequencies for the rst two modes of the 0 =90  cross-ply parabolic

4.3. Elliptic ring

In this example, the laminated elliptic ring is considered. The
geometrical modeling of the elliptic ring is shown in Fig. 12 for
the case of quintic NURBS with four non-zero knot spans. The lowest six non-dimensional frequencies with the 0 =90 s symmetric
cross-ply, the 0 =90  cross-ply and 45  angle-ply lay-ups are
presented in Table 6 for various values of a=b when the slenderness
ratio 2a=r 30 and the orthotropy ratio E11 =E22 15. It is noted
that there are three rigid body modes for the elliptic rings which
are excluded in this study. For the perfect circular ring, the six frequencies are grouped into three pairs when the symmetric and
anti-symmetric modes are identical. However, the frequency splitting between these pairs of modes is produced when the a=b ratio
increases, as expected. The splitting is clear for the pair of the rst
and second modes and gradually reduces in case of higher-order
modes. All the results presented in Table 6 are also produced by
using 32 NURBS elements of the order ve. Fig. 13 shows the variation of the rst two non-dimensional frequencies for the 0 =90 
cross-ply lamination of elliptic rings with different orthotropy
ratios with respect to the slenderness ratio when a=b = 1.6. From
this gure, it can be realized that due to the effect of the shear
deformation and the rotary inertia, the non-dimensional

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

163

Fig. 14. The rst six mode shapes of the [0 =90 ] cross-ply elliptic ring (a=b 1:6; 2a=r 30 and E11 =E22 15).

frequencies decrease as the slenderness ratio reaches to the range

of thick rings, as expected. Besides, when the orthotropy ratio
increases, this range is extended. For example, for E11 =E22 2, the
curved thick beam theory is needed to apply when 2a=r is smaller
than 30. This value of 2a=r for E11 =E22 50 is 60. The rst six mode
shapes for the 0 =90  cross-ply elliptic ring with
a=b 1:6; 2a=r 30 and E11 =E22 15 are presented in Fig. 14.
4.4. Free-form curved beam
In our nal example, a laminated curved beam with the
Tschirnhausens cubic geometry, as a free-form curved beam, is
considered to generate results of the free vibration analysis. The
geometry of the Tschirnhausens cubic curved beam is dened as
27ay2 x2 x 9a with x 2 9a; 0; y P 0; a > 0, the length of
span l 9a [32]. It is well known in CAD that the free-form curve
is modeled accurately by NURBS through the technique of interpolation. Therefore, the laminated free-form curved beam can be analyzed for the natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes

by using the present NURB-based isogeometric approach. The

NURBS-based geometry of the Tschirnhausens cubic curved beam
is constructed by interpolating of 41 data points with the aid of the
chord length method, as shown in Fig. 15(a). This NURBS curve of
the order ve with 45 control points and 40 knot spans is presented in Fig. 15(b). Using the present geometric modeling, the rst
 with 0 =90  cross-ply and
six non-dimensional frequencies x

45  angle-ply lay-ups are presented in Table 7. The rst six
mode shapes for the 0 =90  cross-ply Tschirnhausens cubic
curved beam with and l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15 are plotted in
Fig. 16.
5. Concluding remarks
The laminated free-form curved beam model considering all the
effects of deepness, laminate coupling, axis extensibility, shear
deformation, and rotary inertia was developed by using NURBSbased isogeometric approach in order to investigate the in-plane
free vibration behavior of laminated curved beams and rings with

164

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

carried out for the case of the semi-elliptic curved beam. It have
been conrmed the efciency and fast convergence speed of the
k-renement in IGA. The validity of the proposed framework has
been conrmed through the comparison of the present results with
the other solutions available in the literature. The non-dimensional
natural frequencies and mode shapes of the laminate parabolic
curved beam, elliptic ring, and Tschirnhausens cubic curved beam
have been presented. The effects of laminated lay-ups, rise to span
length, slenderness and orthotropy ratios on the natural frequencies of the laminated curved beams with variable curvature have
been investigated. It was found that the crossover of the lowest frequency can occur when the rise to span length, slenderness or
orthotropy ratio changes. These numerical results have been provided as benchmark solutions to supplement the available database in the published literature. By using the proposed NURBSbased IGA, the gap between the analysis of the curved beam with
constant curvature and that with variable curvature has been eliminated, thus this method can be applied for investigating other
behaviors of the free-form curved beam.
Fig. 15. Quintic NURBS curve of 40 elements is constructed by interpolation
method of 41 data points given by the Tschirnhausens cubic curve which is dened
as 27ay2 x2 x 9a with x 2 9a; 0; y P 0; a > 0.

variable curvature. The proposed model uses deep formulation

along with the equivalent lamina modulus for calculation of ABD
parameters. The convergence study of the present IGA has been

Acknowledgments
This research was supported by National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology through NRF2010-0019373 and 2012R1A2A1A01007405,
and by Korea Ministry of Knowledge Economy under the National
HRD support program for convergence information technology

Table 7
p
 i xi l2 qA=E11 I for the Tschirnhausens cubic laminated curved beams (l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15).
Non-dimensional frequencies x
Mode

clampedclamped


hinged-hinged

0 =90 

1
2
3
4
5
6

0 =90 

45 

45 

l=r=30

l=r=100

l=r=30

l=r=100

l=r=30

l=r=100

l=r=30

l=r=100

12.8174
22.7220
34.8947
38.8451
52.7510
66.8694

16.6931
33.3211
59.0957
85.3094
112.693
124.891

8.76372
13.8278
20.4581
28.2420
37.8968
45.0675

10.9375
21.7906
38.8770
47.7212
63.0989
84.1978

9.13513
21.8297
26.8522
38.1375
50.2795
64.6114

10.1497
26.2754
48.7339
77.9197
98.8063
117.363

6.15229
12.8005
16.8203
26.1540
35.7344
41.7080

6.59864
16.7436
32.1066
46.3679
53.8060
74.7010

Fig. 16. The rst six mode shapes of the [0 =90 ] cross-ply Tschirnhausens cubic curved beam with clampedclamped boundary condition (l=r 30 and E11 =E22 15).

A.-T. Luu et al. / Composite Structures 119 (2015) 150165

supervised by National IT Industry Promotion Agency through NIPA2013-H0401-13-1003. The support is gratefully acknowledged.
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