Analytical Solutions of Partial Differential Equations Modeling the Mechanical Behavior of Non-Prismatic Slender Continua

Abstract

Non-prismatic slender continua are the prototypical models of many structural elements used in engineering applications, such as wind turbine blades and towers. Unfortunately, closed-form expressions for stresses and strains in such continua are much more difficult to find than in prismatic ones, e.g., the de Saint-Venant’s cylinder, for which some analytical solutions are known. Starting from a suitable mechanical model of a tapered slender continuum with one dimension much larger than the other tapered two, a variational principle is exploited to derive the field equations, i.e., the set of partial differential equations and boundary conditions that govern its state of stress and strain. The obtained equations can be solved in closed form only in a few cases. Paradigmatic examples in which analytical solutions are obtainable in terms of stresses, strains, or related mechanical quantities of interest in engineering applications are presented and discussed.