Thermo-Mechanical Stability Analysis of Composite Cylindrical Panels

In this article, stability behavior of laminated composite curved panels under thermo-mechanical loading is analyzed. A generalized panel model is developed based on higher order shear deformation theory by taking the nonlinearity in Green-Lagrange sense for thermal distortion. The critical buckling load (mechanical/thermal) parameters are obtained by using the developed finite element model validated for both ANSYS and homemade computer code. The model has been discretized in ANSYS using an eight-noded serendipity shell element (shell281) and a nine noded isoparametric element for the computer code. The convergence test has been carried out and the results are compared with those available published literature. In this analysis, a uniform temperature distribution through the thickness is taken and the material properties for the composites are assumed to be temperature invariant. We note substantial effect of different parameters (support conditions, number of layers, thickness ratio and modular ratio) on thermo-mechanical stability behavior of laminated structures.