Critical Buckling Pressure and Buckling Shape of Composite Cylindrical Shell Subjected to Hydrostatic Pressure

This paper is devoted to the buckling behavior of the composite cylindrical shell subjected to hydrostatic pressure. Both critical buckling pressure and buckling shape are taken into account in the paper. The critical buckling pressure has been calculated using analytic formulas and validated by finite element method. The influence of type of materials, ply orientation angle, and overall thickness of shells on critical buckling pressure and buckling shape has been investigated numerically and demonstrated by several examples. Three type of common composite materials, carbon/epoxy, boron/epoxy and glass/epoxy, are chosen in the paper to make a comparison.