Buckling analysis of composite long cylinders using probabilistic finite element method

Abstract

The buckling behaviours of filament-wound car-bon fibre-epoxy composite long cylinders subjected to ex-ternal hydrostatic pressure are researched by using deter-ministic and probabilistic finite element analyses. The critical buckling pressures predicted by deterministic finite element analysis and Monte Carlo simulation and response surface method of ANSYS probabilistic design system are compared with the experimental results. The effects of uncertainties of material properties and physical dimen-sions on the critical buckling pressure are also researched. The results show that the deterministic and probabilistic finite element analyses predict the similar critical buckling pressures, which are a little higher than the experimental results. The probability of buckling predicted by using re-sponse surface method is correct according to the experi-mental buckling pressure. The thickness of composite lay-ers, transversal modulus, inside radius and longitudinal modulus have significant effects on the performance of composite long cylinders, whereas shear modulus, Pois-son's ratio, winding angle of outer layers, winding angle of inner layers and unsupported length have small influences.