Composite Laminated Shells Under Transverse End Load

SUMMARY The focus of this work is the development of a methodology for solving composite laminated shells under transverse end load. The analysis is carried out within the framework of the fully three-dimensional theory of cylindrically anisotropic elasticity. Based on a Saint-Venant semi-inverse solution, two sets of coupled partial differential equations are derived using four Lekhnitskii stress functions. Governing equations are sequentially solved by employing the separation of variables approach for each set of governing equations. The effect of fibre orientation on the overall deformation is examined. Detailed stress distributions for quasi-isotropic [90/0/45/- 45]s and [45/-45/90/0]s laminated shells are investigated.