Design of Composite Cylindrical Panels for Maximum Axial and Shear Buckling Capacity

Abstract

Response of a cylindrical panel made of layers of composite material and subjected to in-plane loads is investigated. Prebuckling deformations are determined for antisymmetric angle-ply and cross-ply panels having simply supported boundary conditions. Buckling solutions are obtained via the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Nonlinear programming is used to optimize the designs. Design variables are taken as fiber orientations and/or thicknesses of different layers. Numerical results are presented for different materials and different geometrical parameters, including aspect ratio and curvature-to-length ratio.