Elastic Buckling of Laminated Conical Shells Using a Hierarchical High-Fidelity Analysis Procedure

Abstract

A hierarchical high-fidelity analysis procedure is adopted for predicting the critical buckling load of filament wound laminated conical shells. This hierarchical procedure includes three levels of fidelity for the analysis. Level-1 assumes that the shell buckling load can be predicted by using simply supported boundary condition with a linear membrane prebuckling solution. Level-2 includes the effects of a nonlinear prebuckling solution and the effects of different boundary conditions. Level-3 includes the nonlinear interaction between nearly simultaneous buckling modes and the effects of boundary imperfections. For the Level-1 analysis a computer code BOLCS had been developed. BOLCS calculates the buckling load of laminated conical shells by a linear bifurcation analysis. The buckling behavior obtained by BOLCS is compared for various load cases with Level-3 solutions calculated by the two-dimensional nonlinear code STAGS-A. The effects of the assumptions and approximations used for the two solutions are discussed. In addition, the influence of the in-plane boundary condition on the buckling behavior of laminated conical shells under axial compression is investigated. It is found that the in-plane boundary condition at the large end of the shell has a major effect on the buckling behavior.