Assessment of refined higher order theories for the static and vibration analysis of laminated composite cylindrical shells

Abstract

In the present study, a generalized shell theory is presented and applied for the analysis of laminated composite cylindrical shells. A theoretical unification of the several refined shell theories is presented. The principle of work done is employed to derive five differential equations corresponding to five unknowns involved in the present generalized shell theory. Five differential equations are solved by an analytical procedure suggested by the Navier. The numerical results for simply supported laminated composite cylindrical shells are presented and compared with 3D elasticity solutions. Displacements, stresses and fundamental frequencies are obtained for isotropic, orthotropic, 00/900 and 00/900/00 laminated cylindrical shells. The numerical results are obtained for h/a=0.1, a/b=1 and different values of R/a ratio. Displacements and stresses of laminated cylindrical shells are estimated under sinusoidal transverse load. In the case of free vibration analysis, first five natural frequencies are presented. It is observed that refined theories predicts displacements and stresses in close agreement with 3D elasticity solutions whereas the FST and the CST underpredict the displacements and stresses. It is also observed that the CST overestimates the natural frequencies due to neglect of shear deformation effect.