A shell facet model for preliminary design of cylindrical composite structures

The laminated composite lay-up design typically involves trade-offs between material selection, thickness of the layer, orientation of the layers, and the stacking sequence. Finding the right structural concept early in the design process leaves resources for the detailed design. Many structural members made of laminated composite materials have the form of thin walled cylindrical shells that are prone to buckling. Thus it is desirable to find structural designs that satisfy global requirements for structural stability early in the design phases. In this work, thin-walled cylindrical composite shells under different loading conditions have been studied for structural stability. The simulation is performed with a shell facet model implemented in the ESAComp software. Preliminary design tools for structural stability of thin-walled cylindrical composite shells are demonstrated and discussed.