Thermal Postbuckling of Shear Deformable FGM Cylindrical Shells with Temperature-Dependent Properties

Abstract

Thermal postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear deformable functionally graded cylindrical shell. Heat conduction and temperature-dependent material properties are both taken into account. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the shell surface and varied in the thickness direction. The material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are assumed to be graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents, and are assumed to be temperature-dependent. The governing equations are based on higher order shear deformation shell theory with a von Kármán-Donnell-type of kinematic nonlinearity. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine buckling temperature and postbuckling load-deflection curves. The numerical illustrations concern the thermal postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, FGM cylindrical shells with different geometric parameter and volume fraction exponent. The results reveal that the volume fraction distribution has a significant effect on the thermal buckling and postbuckling behavior of FGM cylindrical shells. They also confirm that the thermal postbuckling equilibrium path is stable or weakly unstable and the shell structure is virtually imperfection-insensitive