Buckling prediction for composite laminated cylindrical shells in underwater environment

This paper presents buckling solutions for composite laminated cylindrical shells in the underwater environment. Under the equilibrium governing equation of the bending stress state, two calculation formulas are proposed to predict the buckling pressure for the underwater composite cylinders with different boundary conditions. The validation of the proposed solutions in the elastic range is proved by comparison with experimental data. The influences of the geometrical imperfections generated from the process are considered by correcting the stiffness coefficients of the proposed analytical model. The results, compared with the finite element method, show that the evolution trend of the buckling pressure calculated by the developed model is close to the finite element analysis. Therefore, the proposed analytical solutions can provide a practical and efficient way for the designers to evaluate the buckling pressure of the composite shells in the design stage.