Postbuckling characteristics of angle-ply laminated truncated circular conical shells

The postbuckling characteristics of the angle-ply laminated composite conical shells subjected to the torsion, the external pressure, the axial compression, and the thermal loading considering uniform temperature change are studied using the semi-analytical finite element approach. The finite element formulation is based on the first-order shear deformation theory and the field consistency principle. The variations in the stiffness coefficients along the meridional direction due to the changes in the ply-angle and the ply-thickness of the filament wound conical shells are incorporated in the finite element formulation. The nonlinear governing equations are solved using the Newton–Raphson iteration procedure coupled with the displacement control method to trace the prebuckling followed by the postbuckling equilibrium path. The presence of asymmetric perturbation in the form of a small magnitude load spatially proportional to the linear buckling mode shape is considered to initiate the bifurcation of the shell deformation. The influence of semi-cone angle, ply-angle and number of circumferential waves on the prebuckling/postbuckling response of the anti-symmetric angle-ply laminated circular conical shells is investigated.