Theddeus T. Akano - Department of Systems Engineering, University of Lagos Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria,
Omotayo A Fakinlede - Department of Systems Engineering, University of Lagos Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria
Patrick S. Olayiwola - Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering, Bells University of Technology Ota, Ogun, Nigeria

Composites provide design flexibility because many of them can be moulded into complex shapes. Carbon fibre-reinforced epoxy composites exhibit excellent fatigue tolerance with high specific strength and stiffness. These properties led to their numerous advanced applications ranging from military and civil aircraft structures to consumerproducts. The modelling of beams undergoing arbitrarily large displacements and rotations, but small strains, is a common problem in the application of these engineering composite systems. This paper presents a nonlinear finite element model able to estimate the deformations of the fibre-reinforced epoxy composite beam. The governingequations are based on Euler-Bernoulli Beam Theory (EBBT) with a von Kármán type of kinematic nonlinearity. Anisotropic elasticity is employed for the material model of the composite material. Characterization of the mechanical properties of the composite material is achieved through tensile test while simple laboratory experiment is used to validate the model. Results reveal that composite fibre orientation; the type of applied load and boundary condition affect the deformation characteristics of composite structures. Nonlinear consideration is important in the analysis of fibre-reinforced epoxy composites

Anisotropic elasticity, composite material, large displacement