Buckling of moderately thick laminated cylindrical shells: a review

Abstract

The present paper is a review article on the problem of buckling of moderately thick, laminated, composite shells subjected to destabilizing loads. The loads consist of uniform axial compression, uniform lateral pressure and torsion applied individually or in combination. In all the works reported in the literature, the analysis is based on higher-order shear deformation (HOSD) shell theory and/or first-order shear deformation (FOSD) shell theory with or without a shear correction factor. Results obtained by these two shell theories and by employing classical thin shell theory are compared to determine the range of applicability of each in predicting critical conditions. The effect of stacking sequence, radius-to-thickness ratio and length-to-radius ratio is assessed. Typical numerical results are presented in tabular form. Moreover, some limited results, which are based on limit point analysis are also presented (imperfection sensitivity studies).