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Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

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Mechanical stability of functionally graded stiened

cylindrical shells
M.M. Najazadeh *, A. Hasani, P. Khazaeinejad
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak 38135-567, Iran
Received 1 December 2005; received in revised form 1 January 2008; accepted 7 January 2008
Available online 24 January 2008

Abstract
This paper is concerned with the elastic buckling of stiened cylindrical shells by rings and stringers made of functionally graded materials subjected to axial compression loading. The shell properties are assumed to vary continuously
through the thickness direction. Fundamental relations, the equilibrium and stability equations are derived using the Sanders assumption. Resulting equations are employed to obtain the closed-form solution for the critical buckling loads. The
results show that the inhomogeneity parameter and geometry of shell signicantly aect the critical buckling loads. The
analytical results are compared and validated using the nite element method.
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Functionally graded material; Buckling; Stiened cylindrical shell; Finite element method

1. Introduction
Stiened cylindrical shells have found widespread use in modern engineering, especially in aircraft and
spacecraft industry. There have been many studies on the stability of cylindrical shells but closed-form solutions are possible only for the case which all edges are simply supported. Due to the increasing demands of
high structural performance requirements, the study of functionally graded materials in structures has received
considerable attention in recent years.
The buckling and postbuckling of cylindrical shells under combined loading of external pressure and axial
compression are demonstrated by Shen and Chen [1]. The instability analysis of stiened cylindrical shells
under hydrostatic pressure is given by Barush and Singer [2]. The postbuckling of stiened cylindrical shells
under combined external pressure and axial compression is investigated by Shen et al. [3]. Using a novel nite
elements model, Sridharan and Zeggane [4] studied the interaction of local and overall buckling in stiened
plates and cylindrical shells. Numerical examples of plate and shell structures are presented to throw light
on these aspects of the methodology as well as to demonstrate the accuracy and eciency of the model.
The postbuckling analysis of stiened braided thin shells subjected to combined loading of external pressure
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 861 367 0084.

E-mail address: mohammadnajazadeh@yahoo.com (M.M. Najazadeh).

0307-904X/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apm.2008.01.009

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M.M. Najazadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

and axial compression is reported by Zeng and Wu [5]. Yae and Abramovich [6] have analyzed numerically
and experimentally the dynamic buckling of cylindrical stringer-stiened shells. They have shown that when
the period of the applied loading equals half the lowest natural period of the shell, there is a slight drop in the
dynamic load amplication factor. Spagnoli [7] studied the dierent modes of instability in stiened conical
shells under axial compression through a linear eigenvalue nite element analysis. Kidane et al. [8] derived
the buckling loads of a generally cross and horizontal grid stiened composite cylinder by developing an analytical model for determination of the equivalent stiness parameters of a grid stiened composite cylindrical
shell. Rikards et al. [9] employed a triangular nite element model to study the buckling and vibration of laminated composite stiened shells and plates based on the rst order shear deformation theory. The stabilization
of a functionally graded (FG) cylindrical shell under axial harmonic loading is investigated by Ng et al. [10].
Recently, Khazaeinejad et al. [11] has developed a closed-form solution based on the rst order shear deformation theory to study the buckling loads of FG cylindrical shells under three types of mechanical loadings.
The buckling behavior of functionally graded stiened cylindrical shells by rings and stringers under axial
compression loading is studied in this paper. The Donnell nonlinear straindisplacement relations are
employed to derive the equilibrium and stability equations. The closed-form solution is used to obtain the critical buckling loads. The eects of the inhomogeneity parameter and geometry of shell on the critical buckling
loads of FG stiened cylindrical shells are examined. The buckling loads were then veried against a nite
element method (FEM) model.
2. Formulation
Consider a cylindrical shell of mean radius a, thickness h, and length L with the cylindrical coordinates
(x, h, z) made of functionally graded materials (Fig. 1). The Youngs modulus of shell is assumed to vary as
a power form of the thickness coordinate z,(h/2 6 z 6 h/2), that is [11]

k
2z h
Ez Em Ecm
2h
1
Ecm Ec  Em ;
where k is the inhomogeneity parameter and subscripts m and c refer to the metal and ceramic constituents,
respectively. The Donnell form of the kinematic relations for cylindrical shells is as follows [12]
u
 w w
1
v;h w w2;h
;h
;x ;h
v;x
ex u;x w2;x ; eh
2 ; cxh
2a
a
a
2
a
2
w;hh
w;xh
k x w;xx ; k h  2 ; k xh 
a
a
where u, v and w are the axial, circumferential, and lateral displacements of shell, respectively, ex, eh and cxh are
the normal and shear strains, respectively and kx, kh and kxh are the curvatures. Also, the indices x and h refer
to the axial and circumferential directions, respectively.

Fig. 1. Geometry of FG circular cylindrical shell.

M.M. Najazadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

1153

Fig. 2. Schematic view of shell-wall construction for FG stiened cylindrical shell.

A thin-walled FG cylindrical shell, stiened by closely spaced circular rings attached to the inside of the
shell skin and with longitudinal stringers attached to the outside is considered (see Fig. 2). We assumed that
the stieners and skin are made of functionally graded materials. For a shell-wall construction that is not symmetrical relative to the shell middle surface, there is a coupling between extensional forces and curvature
change and between bending moments and extensional strains. To account for this coupling eect the constitutive equations are expressed as [12]
N x C 11 ex C 12 eh C 14 k x C 15 k h ;
N h C 12 ex C 22 eh C 24 k x C 25 k h ;
N xh C 33 cxh C 36 k xh ;
M x C 14 ex C 24 eh C 44 k x C 45 k h ;

M h C 15 ex C 25 eh C 45 k x C 55 k h ;
M xh C 63 cxh C 66 k xh ;
where the stiness parameters Cij are given by
E1
E1s bs
mE1
E2
E2s bs
mE2

; C 12
; C 14

; C 15
;
2
2
2
1m
ds
1m
1m
ds
1  m2
E1
E1r br
mE2
E2
E2r br
E1
;

; C 24
; C 25

; C 33
1  m2
dr
1  m2
1  m2
dr
21 m


E2
E3
E3s bs
mE3
E3
E3r br
; C 45
; C 44

; C 55

;
1m
1  m2
ds
1  m2
1  m2
dr


E2
E3
1 Gs J s Gr J r
; C 66

21 m
1 m 2 ds
dr

C 11
C 22
C 36
C 63

where
Ecm h
;
k1
kEcm h2
;
E2
2k 1k 2


E m h3
1
1
1
3
E3
Ecm h


;
12
4k 1 k 2 k 3
Z h2s
Z es h2s
Ezdz; E2s ; E3s
Ezz; z2 dz;
E1s
E1 Em h

E1r

h2s

es h2s

hr
2

Ezdz;
h2r

E2r ; E3r

er h2r
er h2r

Ezz; z2 dz;

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M.M. Najazadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

where subscripts s and r refer to the stringers and rings, respectively. Note that, the thickness and width for stringers are respectively denoted by hs and bs and for rings are hr and br. Also, ds and dr are the distances between two
stringers and rings, respectively and the eccentricities es and er represent the distance from the shell middle surface
to the centroid of the stiener cross section (Fig. 2). In Eq. (3), the stress resultants Ni and Mi are expressed as
Z h2
ri 1; zdz i x; h; xh
6
N i ; M i
h
2

Using the minimum potential energy criterion [12], the equilibrium equations of stiened cylindrical shell composed of functionally graded materials are given by
aN x;x N xh;h 0;
aN xh;x N h;h 0;
1
1
aM x;xx 2M xh;xh M h;hh  N h aN x w;xx 2N xh w;xh N h w;hh Pa
a
a

The stability equations of cylindrical shell may be derived by the variational approach. If V is the total
potential energy of the shell, the rst variation dV is associated with the state of equilibrium. The stability
of the original conguration of the shell in the neighborhood of the equilibrium state can be determined by
the sign of second variation d2V. However, the condition of d2V = 0 is used to derive the stability equations
of many practical problems on the buckling of shells [12]. Thus, the stability equations are represented by the
Euler equations for the integrand in the second variation expression
aN x1;x N xh1;h 0;
aN xh1;x N h1;h 0;
1
1
aM x1;xx 2M xh1;xh M h1;hh  N h1 aN x0 w1;xx 2N xh0 w1;xh N h0 w1;hh 0
a
a

The terms with the subscript 0 are related to the state of equilibrium and terms with the subscript 1 are
those characterizing the state of stability. By substituting Eq. (3) into (8), the stability equations can be derived
in terms of displacement components.
3. Buckling analysis
3.1. Analytical solution
To determine the critical buckling loads, the prebuckling mechanical forces should be found from the equilibrium equations and then substituted into the stability equations for the buckling analysis. Under a uniformly distributed axial compressive load P, the cylinder shortens, except at the ends, and increases in
diameter. The initial deformation is axisymmetric and the prebuckling mechanical forces are given by [12]
N h0 N xh0 0;

N x0 

P
:
2pa

Upon substituting the prebuckling forces into the stability equations (8) in terms of displacement components, a set of three dierential equations is obtained. To solve this set of equations, the following approximate
solutions, which satisfy the resulting equations and the simply supported boundary conditions are assumed
u1
v1
w1

1 X
1
X
m1 n1
1 X
1
X

 sin nh;
U mn cos mx
 cos nh;
V mn sin mx

m1 n1
1 X
1
X
m1 n1

 sin nh;
W mn sin mx

10

M.M. Najazadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

1155

 mpa=L: Substituting relations (10) into the stability equations in terms of displacement components
where m
gives
a11 A a12 B a13 C 0;
a12 A a22 B a23 C 0;
a13 A a23 B a33  P C 0;

11

where

 2 C 33 n2 ; a12 C 12 C 33 mn;
a11 C 11 m


C 14 3 1
 2 ;

 C 15 C 36 mn
a13  C 12 m
m
a
a
2
2

 C 22 n ; P P m
 2 =2pa;
a22 C 33 m

12

n3 1
 2 n;
a23 C 22 n  C 25  C 36 C 24 m
a a
4 2
n4
2n2
2 2
m
 2 n2 2 C 55 C 22
 C 24
a33 C 44 2 2 C 45 C 66 m
C 25 m
a
a
a
a
a
which [a] is a symmetric matrix. By setting jaijj = 0 to obtain the nonzero solution, the value of P is found
P
a33 2a12 a23 a13  a22 a213  a11 a223
2
:
2

a11 a22  a212 m
2pa m

13

The critical buckling load can be obtained by minimizing P with respect to m and n, the number of longitudinal and circumferential buckling waves. By setting the inhomogeneity parameter to zero (k = 0) and minimizing with respect to m and n, Eq. (13) is reduced to the critical buckling load of unstiened homogeneous
cylindrical shell
 2
P cr
1
Eh
p
:
14
2
2pa
3 1  m a
The above equation has been reported by Brush and Almorth [12].
3.2. Finite element model
The present analytical solution needs to be veried with some other mathematical computational model
such as the FEM. For verication, we have used a nite element program code. The FEM analysis was done
on an FG unstiened and stiened cylindrical shell using an 2D FEM model (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3. FEM model for FG stiened cylindrical shell.

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M.M. Najazadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

4. Numerical results
This paper presents the mechanical buckling analysis of functionally graded stiened cylindrical shells by
rings and stringers under axial compression load. A ceramicmetal FG stiened cylindrical shell is considered.
The FG stiened cylindrical shell constituents are zirconia and aluminium. The Youngs modulus for zirconia
and aluminum are 151 GPa and 70 GPa, respectively. The Poissons ratio is assumed to be constant and equal
to 0.3. As a numerical example, we consider an FG stiened cylindrical shell with 15 rings and stringers illustrated in Fig. 3. Let L = 387.35  103 m, a = 60.643  103 m, hs = 0.076  103 m, bs = 21.155  103 m,
hr = 0.127  103 m, and br = 1.27  103 m.
For the given values of the inhomogeneity parameter k and thickness of shell, the values of m and n may be
chosen by trial to give the smallest value of buckling load P. These values can be obtained by a suitable software or optimization program. The values of critical buckling loads (GPa) are listed for homogeneous unstiened and stiened cylindrical shell based on the analytical and FEM solutions in Table 1. The same results are
presented in Table 2 for FG unstiened and stiened cylindrical shell (k = 0.5 and 1). It is observed that the
analytical results agree well with the FEM results. The analytical predictions are very close to the FEM results
with only about 5% dierence. It is noted that when the shell is stiened, the dierence between the analytical
and FEM results is only about 3%. As shown, the buckling loads of the shell increase as the shell becomes
Table 1
Comparing the critical buckling loads of simply supported homogeneous cylindrical shells (k = 0)
h(103 m)

Sources

Unstiened

Stiened

0.305

Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM

0.083
0.086
0.129
0.132
0.186
0.188
0.253
0.252
0.331
0.325
0.419
0.408
0.517
0.486

0.086
0.088
0.133
0.135
0.191
0.191
0.258
0.256
0.337
0.330
0.425
0.413
0.524
0.505

0.381
0.457
0.533
0.610
0.686
0.762

Table 2
Comparing the critical buckling loads of simply supported FG cylindrical shell
h (103 m)

Sources

k = 0.5
Unstiened

Stiened

Unstiened

Stiened

0.305

Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM
Analytical
FEM

0.066
0.069
0.103
0.106
0.149
0.151
0.202
0.203
0.264
0.262
0.334
0.327
0.413
0.400

0.067
0.071
0.104
0.108
0.150
0.153
0.204
0.206
0.266
0.265
0.336
0.331
0.415
0.404

0.059
0.061
0.092
0.094
0.132
0.133
0.180
0.179
0.235
0.231
0.298
0.288
0.368
0.353

0.060
0.063
0.093
0.096
0.133
0.136
0.181
0.182
0.237
0.233
0.299
0.291
0.369
0.356

0.381
0.457
0.533
0.610
0.686
0.762

k=1

M.M. Najazadeh et al. / Applied Mathematical Modelling 33 (2009) 11511157

1157

thicker. It is interesting to note that, when the shell thickness doubles, the critical buckling loads almost quadruple. Also as the inhomogeneity parameter k increases, the critical buckling loads decrease signicantly.
This decrease is about 29% for k = 0 and 1.
5. Conclusion
In the present paper, equilibrium and stability equations of simply supported functionally graded stiened
cylindrical shells are obtained. Then, the buckling analysis of functionally graded stiened cylindrical shells
under uniformly axial compression load is investigated. It is concluded that:
(i) The critical buckling loads for homogeneous stiened cylindrical shells are generally upper than the corresponding values for the homogeneous unstiened cylindrical shells.
(ii) The critical buckling loads for FG stiened cylindrical shells are generally lower than the corresponding
values for the homogeneous stiened cylindrical shells.
(iii) The critical buckling loads for FG stiened cylindrical shells are generally upper than the corresponding
values for the FG unstiened cylindrical shells.
(iv) The critical buckling loads are increased by increasing the shell thickness and decreasing the inhomogeneity parameter.
References
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[2] M. Barush, J. Singer, Eect of eccentricity of stieners on the general instability of stiened cylindrical shells under hydrostatic
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