Nonlinear stability characteristics of composite cylindrical panel subjected to non-uniform in-plane mechanical and localized thermal loadings

Abstract

The non-linear stability analysis of composite cylindrical panel subjected to concentrated in-plane mechanical and localized thermal loadings are reported here. The buckling of composite panel subjected to concentrated in-plane mechanical loading/ localized thermal loading is solved in two steps as the prebuckling stress distribution within the panel is not known a priori. In the first step, the semi-analytical expressions for the pre-buckling stresses within the composite cylindrical panel under in-plane mechanical/ thermal loadings are developed by solving in-plane elasticity/thermoelasticity problem. Subsequently, using these in-plane stresses within the cylindrical panel, the governing equations for nonlinear stability of layered composite panel are formulated using variational principle. The cylindrical panel is modeled based on Donnell's shallow shell theory considering higher order shear deformation theory and incorporating von-Kármán geometric nonlinearity. The Galerkin's method is used to solve the non-linear governing partial differential equations. The influence of different types of mechanical and thermal loadings, initial geometric imperfections, and radius of curvature on the postbuckling equilibrium paths is investigated.