Probabilistic buckling assessment and reliability of fiber-metal laminate, composite and aluminum cylindrical panels under compression with load and fabrication uncertainties

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the buckling behavior and reliability of fiber metal laminated (FML), composite and aluminum cylindrical panels under uniaxial compression taking into account fabrication and loading uncertainties. A 3D finite element modeling with ANSYS software has been implemented for this purpose. The panels are discretized using shell elements and the eigenvalue buckling analysis is conducted for the prediction of elastic buckling. The influences of load and fabrication uncertainties on the buckling load factor are studied with probabilistic analyses and the reliability of the panels is calculated. It is found that the thickness of aluminum layers is the most significant uncertain variable for the critical buckling load factor of FML panels, whereas the fiber misalignment angle of their composite layers is insignificant. As the metal volume fraction decreases, the sensitivity of the elastic buckling load factor to variations of the axial load distribution is reduced whereas its sensitivity to variations of the thickness of composite layers is increased. Consequently, the metal volume fraction is an important design parameter for the uncertain buckling behavior of the panels.