Buckling stability performance assessment of CFRP-strengthened conical shells under uniform external pressure

Abstract

Abstract Thin-walled conical shells are extensively used in a variety of engineering applications. The major concern in the design of these thin-walled structures is the buckling failure. One potential strategy for improving the buckling stability performance of conical shells may be the employment of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite materials for reinforcement purposes. On this basis, a detailed numerical study is conducted on the buckling performance of CFRP-strengthened conical shells under uniform external pressure and reported in this paper. To this end, numerous conical shell models with different slenderness ratios, strengthened circumferentially and meridionally at different locations and directions using CFRP stripes with 0 ° , 45 ° , and 90 ° fiber orientations are investigated through linear and nonlinear buckling analyses using ABAQUS finite element software. The results and findings of this research are indicative of effectiveness of the reinforcing CFRP laminates in increasing the stiffness and buckling strength of such structures. Specifically, the circumferential reinforcement of the bottom third region using [45 ° /90 ° ] reinforcing CFRP stripes is found to be the superior approach for improving the buckling stability performance of conical shells.