Buckling Analysis of Composite Cylindrical Shell Panels by Using Legendre Polynomials Hierarchical Finite-Strip Method

Abstract

A semianalytical method hybridizing hierarchical theory and finite-strip method (FSM) is developed to analyze buckling behavior of composite laminate shells in this paper. The Legendre orthogonal polynomial series are chosen as the hierarchical shape functions for the shell strips. The critical buckling loads and modes of cylinder shells with various radiuses subjected to axial loads are calculated by the proposed hierarchical finite-strip method (HFSM). The efficiency of HFSM is noted as the method combines the advantages of both hierarchical theory and FSM. The convergence and precision of HFSM are also demonstrated by several numerical examples.