Compliant Assembly Variation Analysis of Scalloped Segment Plates With a New Irregular Quadrilateral Plate Element Via ANCF

Abstract

The accurate calculation of deformation during assembly process is important for deviation propagation of large-scale thin-walled hemisphere structures with manufacturing deviations due to the nonuniformed material properties and nonlinear geometrical behavior. In this study, a new irregular quadrilateral plate element based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) is proposed to discretize the scalloped segment plates with shape deviations. The high-order shape functions of the new element are developed by considering the variable geometrical boundaries. The generalized elastic forces (GEFS) of the new elements for anisotropic and orthotropic materials are derived based on continuum mechanics approach. The bending deviation mode is defined and the evaluation indexes for assembly quality of thin-walled hemisphere structures are proposed. The force equilibrium equations are employed to study the deformation during assembly process for large-scale thin-walled hemisphere structures with multiple scalloped segment plates. The numerical results are compared with that from experimental data and abaqus. The correlation between the assembly quality and the bending deviation, the clamping methods, the geometrical parameters, and the material properties of structures is also investigated.