Postbuckling of Shear Deformable Laminated Cylindrical Shells

Abstract

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear deformable laminated cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to compressive axial loads. The governing equations are based on Reddy’s higher-order shear deformation shell theory with a von Kármán–Donnell type of kinematic nonlinearity. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling, which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, large deflections in the postbuckling range, and initial geometric imperfections of the shell, is extended to the case of shear deformable laminated cylindrical shells under axial compression. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, unstiffened or stiffened, moderately thick, cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells. The effects of transverse shear deformation, shell geometric parameters, total number of plies, fiber orientation, and initial geometric imperfections are studied.