Buckling analysis of laminated cylindrical composite shell panel under mechanical and hygrothermal loads

Abstract

This paper deals with buckling of analysis multilaminated cylindrical shell panels subjected to axial and hygrothermal loadings. The geometrical non-linear analysis is carried out using the Finite Element Method based on a single layer first shear deformation theory. A nine-nodal isoparametric element with 5 degrees of freedom per node is considered. The effects of different number of layers, lamination angles, length to width ratios and hygrothermal effects are studied.