Buckling Analysis of Laminated Composite Cylindrical Shells by Using Catia and Ansys

Abstract

The Cut-outs in cylindrical shell-type components are the most unavoidable in the construction of Aerospace Structures. This fact is the most significant part because the structural failure or deformation of these components tends to begin near the cut-out because of high stress concentrations that will initiate in the formation of cracks. Hence a cut-out can probably trigger a local failure of load at a level lower than the global failure load of the corresponding shell which is without a cutout. As a result the preliminary-design size of a cylindrical shell with a cut-out is often been based on the magnitude of the stress concentrations near the cut-out. Therefore an accurate and better assessment of stress concentrations in a given shell subjected to various types of loading and support conditions is essential for the development of safe and reliable designs. In this work, static analysis are been performed for determining the stress and deformation fields in a thin laminatedcomposite cylindrical shell with and without a circular cut-out is presented. The materials used are steel, S2 Glass Epoxy and Kevlar. The analysis is carried out using FEA software and the modelling and analysis is in ANSYS. Buckling analysis is performed to estimate the buckling factors and corresponding critical stresses with various geometric and material properties.