A high order theory for functionally graded axisymmetric cylindrical shells

In this paper a high order theory for functionally graded (FG) axisymmetric cylindrical shells based on the expansion of the axisymmetric equations of elasticity for functionally graded materials (FGMs) into Fourier series in terms of Legendre's polynomials is presented. Starting from the axisymmetric equations of elasticity, the stress and strain tensors, the displacement, traction and body force vectors are expanded into Fourier series in terms of Legendre's polynomials in the thickness coordinate. In the same way the material parameters that describe the functionally graded material properties are also expanded into Fourier series. All equations of the linear elasticity including Hooke's law are transformed into the corresponding equations for the Fourier series expansion coefficients. Then a system of differential equations in terms of the displacements and the boundary conditions for the Fourier series expansion coefficients is obtained. In particular the first and second order approximations of the exact shell theory are considered in more details. The obtained boundary-value problems are solved by the finite element method (FEM) with COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB software. Numerical results are presented and discussed.

► We develop a higher order theory for functionally graded (FG) axisymmetric cylindrical shells.
► We use for that Fourier series in terms of Legendre's polynomials expansion.
► For numerical solution the FEM implemented in the software COMSOL Multiphysics and MATLAB.
► Influence of the material graduation parameters on the stress–strain state of the cylindrical shell has been studied.