Postbuckling of Shear-deformable Anisotropic Laminated Cylindrical Shells Under Axial Compression

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear-deformable anisotropic laminated cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to axial compression. The material of each layer of the shell is assumed to be linearly elastic, anisotropic and fiber-reinforced. The governing equations are based on a higher order shear-deformable shell theory with the von Kármán–Donnell type of kinematic nonlinearity and including the extension/twist, extension/flexural and flexural/twist couplings. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, moderately thick, anisotropic laminated cylindrical shells with different values of shell parameters and stacking sequence. The results confirm that there exists a compressive stress along with an associate shear stress and twisting when the anisotropic shell is subjected to axial compression. The postbuckling equilibrium path is unstable for the moderately thick cylindrical shell under axial compression and the shell structure is imperfection-sensitive.