Static analysis of laminated and sandwich composite doubly-curved shallow shells

Abstract

A new analytical solution based on a third order shear deformation theory for the problem of static analysis of cross-ply doubly-curved shells is presented. The boundary-discontinuous generalized double Fourier series method is used to solve highly coupled linear partial differential equations with the mixed type simply supported boundary conditions prescribed on the edges. The complementary boundary constraints are introduced through boundary discontinuities generated by the selected boundary conditions for the derivation of the complementary solution. The numerical accuracy of the solution is compared by studying the comparisons of deflections, stresses and moments of symmetric and anti-symmetric laminated shells with finite element results using commercially available software under uniformly distributed load. Results are in good agreement with finite element counterparts. Additional results of the symmetric and anti-symmetric laminated and sandwich shells under single point load at the center and pressure load, are presented to provide data for the unsolved boundary conditions, benchmark comparisons and verifications.