Nonlinear thermoelastic stability characteristics of cross-ply laminated oval cylindrical/conical shells

In this work, the thermoelastic stability characteristics of the cross-ply laminated oval cylindrical/conical shells subjected to uniform temperature rise are studied through nonlinear static analysis employing the finite element approach. Geometric nonlinearity is introduced in the formulation considering moderately large deformation effects. The study is carried out to highlight the influences of the noncircularity parameter, number of layers, material properties and semi-cone angle on the nonlinear thermoelastic response/stability characteristics of the laminated oval cylindrical/conical shells. It is brought out from the detailed studies that the circular shells exhibit distinct bifurcation point but the noncircular shells reveal smooth transition from the prebuckling to the postbuckling equilibrium path. The moderately noncircular shell response is found to be sensitive to the type of initial perturbation and the semi-cone angle whereas the highly noncircular shells are insensitive to the presence of small perturbation. It is also brought out that the linear eigenvalue buckling analysis approach may not be appropriate for the estimation of the critical temperature parameter of the highly noncircular shells.