Thermal postbuckling of shear-deformable anisotropic laminated cylindrical shells with temperature-dependent properties

Thermal postbuckling analysis is presented for shear-deformable anisotropic laminated cylindrical shell of finite length. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform or non-uniform parabolic temperature distribution varying in the circumferential or axial direction. Temperature-dependent material properties are taken into account. The governing equations are based on Reddy's higher order shear deformation shell theory with von Karman-Donnell-type of kinematic non-linearity and including the extension/torsion, extension/flexure, flexure/torsion couplings and thermal effects. The non-linear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the buckling temperature and postbuckling load-deflection curves. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, anisotropic laminated cylindrical shells with different values of shell parameters and stacking sequence. The results confirm that there exists a compressive stress along with an associated shear stress and torsional effect when the anisotropic shell is subjected to thermal loads. They also confirm that the thermal postbuckling equilibrium path is stable or weakly unstable for the moderately long cylindrical shell and the shell structure is virtually imperfection- insensitive.