Hygrothermal effects on the nonlinear buckling of functionally graded multilayer GPL-Fiber reinforced hybrid composite cylindrical shells

An accurate nonlinear buckling analysis of functional graded multilayer GPL-Fiber reinforced hybrid composites (FG multilayer GPL-Fiber RHCs) cylindrical shells under hygro-thermo-mechanical loadings is performed. The axisymmetric pre-buckling effect, which is usually neglected in the classical eigen-buckling analysis, is considered to improve the accuracy of critical buckling loads. Nonlinear governing equations are derived by adopting the high-order shear deformation theory and Novozhilov's nonlinear shell theory. Accurate critical buckling loads and explicit buckling mode shapes are obtained by the Galerkin method. Comparisons with results of existing literature are presented to validate the accuracy of present solutions. A comprehensive parametric study of key influencing parameters on the structural stability of the FG multilayer GPL-Fiber RHCs cylindrical shell is investigated in detail. The numerical results indicate that the stability of such shell highly depends on the temperature rise and moisture absorption, and contents and distribution profiles of GPLs and fibers could be optimized to enhance the anti-buckling performance of the shell.