M. A. Boorboor Ajdari*, S. Jalili, M. Jafari, J. Zamani and M. Shariyat
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 26, no. 9, pp.2783-2791, 2012

Abstract : The objective of this research is determining the buckling load of composite truncated conical shells under external loading by theoretical and numerical methods. The boundary conditions are assumed to be clamped. At first, basic equations and stability relations of conical shells were derived. The analysis is carried out using Donnel-type stability equations for thin cross-ply conical shells. By applying Galerkin’s method, these equations are converted to a system of ordinary time dependent differential equations. Ritz method is employed for finding the dynamic stability load. Finally, the critical static and dynamic buckling loads and the corresponding wave numbers have been found analytically. Then comparison of results is considered. Results of analytical calculations are compared with numerical results and with other researchers’ analytical results. The effects of geometric parameters, the cone semi-vertex angle, number of layers and material of fibers on buckling loads are discussed.

Keyword : Buckling load; Donnell theory; Galerkin method; Ritz method; Stability equation