Postbuckling of shear deformable FGM cylindrical shells surrounded by an elastic medium

This paper presents a study on the postbuckling response of a shear deformable functionally graded cylindrical shell of finite length embedded in a large outer elastic medium and subjected to axial compressive loads in thermal environments. The surrounding elastic medium is modeled as a tensionless Pasternak foundation that reacts in compression only. The postbuckling analysis is based on a higher order shear deformation shell theory with von Kármán–Donnell-type of kinematic nonlinearity. The thermal effects due to heat conduction are also included and the material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are assumed to be temperature-dependent. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations and the initial geometric imperfections of the shell are both taken into account. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the postbuckling response of the shells and an iterative scheme is developed to obtain numerical results without using any assumption on the shape of the contact region between the shell and the elastic medium. Numerical solutions are presented in tabular and graphical forms to study the postbuckling behavior of FGM shells surrounded by an elastic medium of tensionless Pasternak foundation, from which the postbuckling results for FGM shells with conventional elastic foundations are also obtained for comparison purposes. The results reveal that the unilateral constraint has a significant effect on the postbuckling responses of shells subjected to axial compression in thermal environments when the foundation stiffness is sufficiently large.