Stability Analysis of Laminated Nanocomposite Cylindrical Shells Under Hydrostatic Pressure in Thermal Environments Within Shear Deformation Theory

An analytical approach to the stability analysis of laminated cylindrical shells consisting of functionally graded (FG) nanocomposite plies under hydrostatic pressure (HP) and in thermal environments was presented for the first time. The shear deformation theory (SDT) proposed for laminated homogeneous orthotropic cylindrical shells was extended to the laminated functionally graded nanocomposite cylindrical shells (LFGNCSs). The mechanical properties of LFGNCSs, which consist of layers with thermomechanical properties, were assumed to depend on temperature and the extended mixture rule was used in the evaluations. The stability equations applicable to LFGNCSs were derived and solved in the framework of the extended SDT to obtain the analytical formula for the critical HP in thermal environments. The analytical method proposed was interpreted by comparing it with different equivalent single-layer models with and without thermal environments. In addition, distribution analysis of the critical HP of LFGNCSs with different geometric dimensions, temperature gradients and patterns were carried out using shear deformation and classical theories (CT) in thermal environments.