Instability of moderately thick, laminated, cylindrical shells under combined axial compression and pressure

This paper presents theoretical predictions on the buckling of cylindrical shells subjected to simultaneous loading of axial compression and lateral pressure. The theoretical analysis took into account the effects of transverse shear deformation. The equilibrium equations and the related boundary conditions were derived by variational methods. The buckling equations were derived through the perturbation technique. A solution procedure is developed for computer-generated numerical results. This procedure is based on the Galerkin method. Solutions are obtained and results used to examine the effects of shear deformations for several stacking sequences, length-to-radius ratios, and radius-to-thickness ratios. The numerical results are presented both in tabular and in graphical forms.