Post-buckling of sigmoid-functionally graded material toroidal shell segment surrounded by an elastic foundation under thermo-mechanical loads.

The nonlinear buckling and post-buckling of ceramic–metal–ceramic layers (S-FGM) toroidal shell segment surrounded by elastic foundation under thermo-mechanical loads are investigated with an analytical approach in this paper. Based on the classical thin shell theory with geometrical nonlinearity in von Karman–Donnell sense, Stein and McElman assumption and Pasternak foundation model, the governing equations of nonlinear buckling of S-FGM toroidal shell segment are analyzed. The static critical buckling loads and the post-buckling analyses in two cases – movable and immovable boundary conditions including temperature effects are obtained. Furthermore, the effects of geometry ratios, characteristic of materials, elastic foundation and thermal environment on the nonlinear buckling of shells are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]