Composite Thin-Walled Structures: Stability and Damage

Dear Colleagues,

Thin-walled composite and hybrid members are critical in lightweight structural systems, yet their anisotropy, layup sensitivity, and susceptibility to coupled deformation modes pose significant challenges in stability and damage tolerance. This Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews focused on the analysis, prediction, and experimental characterization of buckling, post-buckling behavior, vibration, fatigue, delamination, and fracture in such structures.

We particularly encourage contributions that bridge mechanics insight with computational efficiency and experimental validation. Topics of interest include: novel reduced-order modeling approaches—e.g., Generalized Beam Theory (GBT) and its extensions—for capturing global, distortional, local, and warping modes in anisotropic laminates; coupling of beam-level formulations with finite elements, XFEM, isogeometric analysis, or machine learning–assisted surrogates; studies on imperfection sensitivity, mode interaction, and damage progression (e.g., delamination under flexural–torsional loading); full-field experimental techniques (e.g., digital image correlation); and probabilistic or reliability-based design frameworks.

Applications span aerospace, civil infrastructure, marine, and renewable energy sectors, where durability and resilience are paramount. By bringing together theorists, computational modelers, and experimentalists, this Issue aims to consolidate current advances and identify future priorities for robust, sustainable design of composite thin-walled systems.

Dr. Navid Kharghani
Guest Editor

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