Abstract
Abstract
This paper presents a numerical method of analysing the elastic stability of thin laminated and longitudinally stiffened shells of revolution. The anisotropic elastic properties of composite materials are taken into account. The discrete longitudinal stiffener is dealt with as a beam-column, and its eccentricity effect is also considered. The basic elastic and geometric stiffness properties of the stiffeners are synthesized into a stiffness matrix compatible with an axisymmetric shell element by a series of transformations, to be used in conjunction with a finite element representation of a thin axisymmetric shell, where the displacements are decomposed into Fourier harmonics. Thus, the effect of the stiffeners can be rigorously accounted for in stability analysis. Examples are given to show that the results agree well with existing solutions by other analytical methods and by experiments.
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