Thermal post-buckling analysis of a laminated composite spherical shell panel embedded with shape memory alloy fibres using non-linear finite element method

Abstract

In this article, the buckling and post-buckling behaviours of a laminated composite spherical shallow shell panel embedded with shape memory alloy (SMA) fibres are studied under a thermal environment. System equations for a laminated composite spherical shell panel embedded with SMA fibres are for the first time derived by modelling the geometric non-linearity in the Green—Lagrange sense and the material non-linearity in SMA fibres in the framework of the higher-order shear deformation theory. The shell panel model is discretized by using a non-linear finite-element approach. The governing algebraic equations are then derived by the variational approach and solved using a direct iterative technique. Influences of the thickness ratio, boundary condition, aspect ratio, curvature ratio, lamination scheme, SMA volume fraction, percentage of prestrain, and amplitude ratio on the buckling and post-buckling temperatures of a laminated composite shell panel with and without SMA have been examined in detail. The results are computed using the present model and compared with those available in the literature.