A new cylindrical element formulation and its application to structural analysis of laminated hollow cylinders

Design and application of superelements in efficient prediction of the structural behavior in a short time has been one of the research interests in the last decade. Superelements are those elements which are capable of producing the same accurate result instead of several combined simple elements. In this paper a new 16-node cylindrical superelement is presented. Static and modal analyses of laminated hollow cylinders subjected to various kinds of loadings and boundary conditions are performed using this element. Some numerical examples are given to illustrate and validate the developed method. The accuracy of the results is evident from comparison of the findings with exact solution method and conventional finite element. It is seen that this element can predict the structural behavior of laminated cylinders in complex loading and boundary conditions in an efficient manner.