STRESSES IN ROTATING COMPOSITE CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS

Stresses in composite cylindrical shells rotating with a constant speed about their longitudinal axis are analyzed. Each ply or ply group is treated as a separate thin layer of homogeneous and orthotropic material under the interfacial stresses as surface loading. There is no limitation on the total thickness of the shell. The circumferential stress, motivated by the conventional thin shell theory, is assumed to vary linearly through the thickness of the layer. The radial stress is determined in terms of the circumferential stress through the equilibrium condition, and an average compatibility condition through the thickness of the thin layer is used. Numerical results using the present analysis show nearly perfect agreement with the exact solution for homogeneous and isotropic cylinders. Some results for cylinders having orthotropic layers are presented for illustrative purposes.