Influences of elastic foundations and boundary conditions on the buckling of laminated shell structures subjected to combined loads

Abstract

This article presents to study the stability of laminated orthotropic cylindrical and truncated conical shells resting on elastic foundations and subjected to combined loads with the clamped and simply supported boundary conditions. Here, axial tensile loads separately applied to the small and large bases of a laminated truncated conical shell, respectively. The basic relations, the modified Donnell type stability and compatibility equations have been obtained for laminated orthotropic truncated conical shells on the Pasternak type elastic foundation. Applying Galerkin method, the critical combined loads of laminated orthotropic conical shells on the Pasternak type elastic foundation with different boundary conditions are obtained. The appropriate formulas for single-layer and laminated cylindrical shells on the Pasternak type elastic foundation made of orthotropic and isotropic materials are found as special cases. Finally, influences of the boundary conditions, the elastic foundation, the number and ordering of the layers and variations of the shell characteristics on the critical combined loads are investigated. The results are compared with their counterparts in the literature.