Postbuckling of shear deformable cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells under combined external pressure and axial compression

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear deformable cross-ply laminated cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to combined loading of external pressure and axial compression. The governing equations are based on Reddyʹs higher order shear deformation shell theory with von Kármán–Donnell type of kinematic nonlinearity. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling, which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, large deflections in the postbuckling range, and initial geometric imperfections of the shell, is extended to the case of shear deformable laminated cylindrical shells under combined loading cases. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine interactive buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect, unstiffened or stiffened, moderately thick, antisymmetric and symmetric cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells for different values of load-proportional parameters.