Thermomechanical Postbuckling Analysis of Cross-Ply Laminated Cylindrical Shell Panels

Abstract

The postbuckling analysis of symmetric and antisymmetric cross-ply laminated cylindrical shell panels subjected to thermomechanical loading is examined in this paper. The formulation is based on an extension of Reissner’s shallow shell simplifications and accounts for parabolic distribution of transverse shear strains. Adopting a multiterm Galerkin’s method, the governing nonlinear partial differential equations are reduced into a set of nonlinear algebraic equations. The nonlinear equilibrium paths through limit points are traced using the Newton–Raphson method in conjunction with Riks approach. Numerical results are presented for symmetric