Internally pressurized elliptical composite cylinders

Abstract

Presented is the development of a semi-analytical solution based on minimization of the total potential energy, the Rayleigh–Ritz procedure, and the Kantorovich method, to study the response of elliptical composite cylinders to internal pressure. Using the solution, the response of a quasi-isotropic elliptical cylinder is compared with the response of a quasi-isotropic circular cylinder to study the effects of noncircular geometry. The distinguishing features of the response of an ellipse are the inward normal displacement at the ends of the major diameter that occur despite the outward force of the internal pressure, the presence of circumferential displacements, and the presence of inplane shear strains. These effects lead to spatial variations, including sign reversals, of a number of displacement, strain, and curvature responses. To study the influence of material orthotropy, the responses of axially stiff and circumferentially stiff elliptical cylinders are also examined. It is shown that in some instances material orthotropy can be used to mitigate the influence of the elliptical geometry, and make particular responses look like those of a circular cylinder.