AIAA JOURNAL

440

VOL. 23, NO. 3

Nonlinear Analysis of Laminated Shells

Including Transverse Shear Strains
J. N. Reddy* and K. Chandrashekharat
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia

Abstract
UMERICAL results obtained using a doubly curved,
shear deformable shell element are presented for
geometrically nonlinear anlaysis of laminated composite
shells. The element is based on an extension of Sanders' shell
theory and accounts for the von Karman strains and transverse shear strains. The sample numerical results presented
here for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of laminated
composite shells should serve as references for future investigations.

Downloaded by Stanford University on October 18, 2012 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/3.8932

The principle of virtual displacements can be used to derive

the governing equations5'6 :
dN,

d
i;dx2

dN2
l
dx2

Contents
Laminated shells are finding increased applications in
aerospace, automobile, and petrochemical industries. This is
due primarily to the high stiffness-to-weight ratio, highstrength-to-weight ratio, and lower machining and maintenance costs associated with composite structures. However,
the analysis of composite structures is more complicated when
compared to metallic structures, because laminated composite
structures are anisotropic and characterized by bendingstretching coupling. Further, the classical shell theories, which
are based on the Kirchhoff-Love kinematic hypothesis, are
known to yield deflections and stresses in laminated shells that
are as much as 30% in error. This error is due to the neglect of
transverse shear strains in the classical shell theories.
The effects of transverse shear deformation and thermal
expansion through the thickness for laminated, transversely
isotropic, cylindrical shells were considered by Zukas and
Vinson. 1 Dong and Tso2 constructed a laminated orthotropic
shell theory that includes transverse shear deformation. Other
shear deformation theories, specialized to anisotropic cylindrical shells, were presented by Whitney and Sun.3'4 Recently,
Reddy5 extended Sanders' theory to account for the transverse shear strains, and presented exact solutions for simply
supported cross-ply laminated shells. All of these studies are
limited to small displacement theories and static analyses.
In the present paper, the extended Sanders' shell theory that
accounts for the shear deformation and the von Karman
strains is used to develop a displacement finite element model
for the bending analysis of laminated composite shells.
Numerical results for cylindrical and doubly curved shells are
presented, showing the effect of geometry and material orthotropy on the deflections and stresses.
Consider a laminated shell constructed of a finite number
of uniform-thickness orthotropic layers, oriented arbitrarily
with respect to the shell coordinates (? 7 ,b*f). The orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system (/,2>D is chosen
such that the / and 2 curves are lines of curvature on the
midsurface f=0, and f curves are straight lines perpendicular
to the surface f=0.
Received Nov. 29, 1983; revision received March 15, 1984.
Copyright American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Inc., 1984. All rights reserved. Full paper to be available from
National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Va., at the
standard price.
*Professor, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics.
jGraduate Research Assistant, Department of Engineering Science
and Mechanics.

.dx,

dx2

' dX]

(1)

dx?

where c0 = 0.5 (\/R2 - 1 //?/), and

du3

T
dx2

du3

du3
t
dx2

(2)
The relationship between the stress resultants (TV/, M/, Q,) are
generalized displacements (u, v, w, </>/, 4>2) can be found in
Ref. 6.
The finite element model of the equations is of the form

where [A) = ( \ u l ) , \u2 }, (u 3 J, { < / > / ) , (4>2 } ) 7 , [A] is the

element stiffness matrix, and (F) is the force vector. The
coefficients of the stiffness matrices are included in Ref. 6.
Note that the stiffness matrix [K] is a function of the
unknown solution vector ( A ) ; therefore, an iterative solution
procedure is required for each load step. In the present study,
the authors have used the direct (i.e., Picard-type) iteration
technique. Sample numerical results for laminated shell
problems are presented in Figs. 1-3. A discussion of these
results is presented in the following paragraphs.
The following types of boundary conditions for a quarterpanel were used (along the symmetry lines, normal in-plane
displacement, and normal rotation are set to zero):

= w=(f>J=0 at y

=w = (l>2=0 at x=a

(4)

Here u, v, and w denote the displacements along the three

coordinate axes, and </>7 and </>2 denote the rotations of the
transverse normals about the x2 and xI axes, respectively. The
following material properties are used:
Material 1:
E, =25 x 106 psi, E2 = 106 psi, G]2 = G]3 =0.5 x 106 psi

G23 = 0.2x 106 psi, v,2= 0.25

(5a)

Material 2:
Ej = 40 x 106 psi, E2 = 106 psi, G]2 = G}3 = 0.6 x 106 psi
G23 =0.5 x 106 psi, V]2 =0.25

(5b)

NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LAMINATED SHELLS

MARCH 1985

441

Load
P = -F

Downloaded by Stanford University on October 18, 2012 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/3.8932

Fig. 3 Bending of a clamped cross-ply [0/90] cylindrical shell

under a uniform loading.
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.

Deflection, (-w/h)

Fig. 1 Bending of a nine-layer cross-ply [0/90/0%..] simply

supported spherical shell subjected to a uniformly distributed load.

Deflection, -w (10
cross-ply

0.0

0.1

0.2

in)

* angle-ply

0.3

0.4

angle-oly

Load,

0.5

3.0iiiiiiiiii|

2.0

0.4

q n (psi)

Load, ci (nsi)

angle-ply experiences shear coupling that stiffens the spherical

shell relatively more than the normal coupling (note that, in
general, shells get softer under externally applied pressure
loads).
Lastly, Fig. 3 contains results (i.e., w, oy, oxz vs load) for a
cross-ply [0/90] clamped cylindrical panel under uniform
load. Clearly, the load deflection curve indicates that the
nonlinearity exhibited by the cross-ply shell is of the hardening type.
The shear-flexible finite element presented here is computationally more efficient than those based on fully or
degenerated three-dimensional elasticity theory. Since only
the von Karman-type nonlinearity is accounted for here, the
element is not suitable for applications involving severe
distortions (i.e., large strains). From the numerical computations it is observed that boundary conditions on the inplane displacements have a significant effect on the shell
deflections and stresses. It is also observed that the form of
nonlinearities exhibited by laminated shells depends on the
lamination schemes (i.e., cross-ply and angle-ply). It would be
of considerable interest to verify these findings by experiments.

0.0
0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

Acknowledgments

.5 --cross-ply

Deflection, w (in in.)

Fig. 2 Bending of a two-layer cross-ply and angle-ply simply supported spherical shells under uniform loading.

The first problem is concerned with the bending of a ninelayer [00/90/0/90%..] cross-ply spherical panel under
external pressure load. The following geometrical data are
used in the analysis: RI =R2 =R= 1000 in., a = b = 5Q in.,
h = 1 in. Individual layers are assumed to be of equal thickness
(hj = h/9). Results using two sets of orthotropic-material
constants, typical of high-modulus graphite-epoxy material
(the ratios are more pertinent here) for individual layers, are
presented in Fig. 1.
Figure 2 contains the pertinent data and results (with
different scales) for two-layer cross-ply and angle-ply simply
supported spherical panels (of material 2). It is interesting to
note that the type of nonlinearity exhibited by the two shells is
quite different; the cross-ply shell gets softer, whereas the
arigle-ply shell gets stiffer with an increase in the applied load.
While both shells have bending-stretching coupling due to the
lamination scheme (B22 = B11 nonzero for the cross-ply
shell and B}6 and B26 are nonzero for the angle-ply shell), the

The results reported here were obtained during investigations supported by Structural Mechanics Divisions of
AFOSR and NASA Lewis. The authors are grateful to Dr.
Anthony Amos and Dr. Chris Chamis for the support.

References
!

Zukas, J. A. and Vinson, J. R., "Laminated Transversely

Isotropic Cylindrical Shells," Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol. 38,
June 1971, pp. 400-407.
2
Dong, S. B. and Tso, F.K.W., "On a Laminated Orthotropic
Shell Theory Including Transverse Shear Deformation," Journal of
Applied Mechanics, Vol. 39, Dec. 1972, pp. 1091-1097.
*Whitney, J. M. and Sun, C. T., "A Higher Order Theory for
Extensional Motion of Laminated Composites," Journal of Sound
and Vibration, Vol. 30, Sept. 1973, p. 85.
4
Whitney, J. M. and Sun, C. T., "A Refined Theory for
Laminated Anisotropic, Cylindrical Shells," Journal of Applied
Mechanics, Vol. 41, June 1974, pp. 471-476.
5
Reddy, J. N., 'Exact Solutions of Moderately Thick Laminated
Shells," Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 110, May
1984, pp. 794-809.
6
Reddy, J. N., "Nonlinear Analysis of Layered Composite Plates
and Shells," Virginia Poytechnic Institute and State University,
Blacksburg, Va., Final Report to AFOSR, Rept. VPI-E-84-5, Jan.
1984.

Downloaded by Stanford University on October 18, 2012 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/3.8932

This article has been cited by:

1. Achchhe Lal, B.N. Singh, Soham Anand. 2011. Nonlinear bending response of laminated composite spherical shell
panel with system randomness subjected to hygro-thermo-mechanical loading. International Journal of Mechanical
Sciences 53:10, 855-866. [CrossRef]
2. Ireneusz Kreja. 2011. A literature review on computational models for laminated composite and sandwich panels.
Central European Journal of Engineering 1:1, 59-80. [CrossRef]
3. M.X. Shi, Q.M. Li. 2011. Instability in the transformation between extensional and flexural modes in thin-walled
cylindrical shells. European Journal of Mechanics - A/Solids 30:1, 33-45. [CrossRef]
4. Surendra Kumar. 2008. Analysis of impact response and damage in laminated composite shell involving large
deformation and material degradation. Journal of Mechanics of Materials and Structures 3:9, 1741-1756. [CrossRef]
5. Chih-Ping Wu, Yen-Wei Chi. 2005. Three-dimensional nonlinear analysis of laminated cylindrical shells under
cylindrical bending. European Journal of Mechanics - A/Solids 24:5, 837-856. [CrossRef]
6. M.H. Toorani. 2003. Dynamics of the geometrically non-linear analysis of anisotropic laminated cylindrical shells.
International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 38:9, 1315-1335. [CrossRef]
7. Jianwu Zhang, Yanhai Xu, Jinsong Wu. 2003. Buckling and Postbuckling of Antisymmetrically Laminated Cross-ply
Shear-Deformable Cylindrical Shells under Axial Compression. Journal of Engineering Mechanics 129:1, 107-116.
[CrossRef]
8. K. Y. Sze, W. K. Chan, T. H. H. Pian. 2002. An eight-node hybrid-stress solid-shell element for geometric non-linear
analysis of elastic shells. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 55:7, 853-878. [CrossRef]
9. A.M. Zenkour, M.E. Fares. 2001. Bending, buckling and free vibration of non-homogeneous composite laminated
cylindrical shells using a refined first-order theory. Composites Part B: Engineering 32:3, 237-247. [CrossRef]
10. C.-P. Wu, C.-C. Liu. 2001. An Asymptotic Theory for the Nonlinear Analysis of Laminated Cylindrical Shells.
International Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and Numerical Simulation 2:4, 329-342. [CrossRef]
11. Il-Kwon Oh, In Lee. 2001. Thermal snapping and vibration characteristics of cylindrical composite panels using
layerwise theory. Composite Structures 51:1, 49-61. [CrossRef]
12. M.H. TOORANI, A.A. LAKIS. 2000. GENERAL EQUATIONS OF ANISOTROPIC PLATES AND SHELLS
INCLUDING TRANSVERSE SHEAR DEFORMATIONS, ROTARY INERTIA AND INITIAL CURVATURE
EFFECTS. Journal of Sound and Vibration 237:4, 561-615. [CrossRef]
13. K. Sandeep, Y. Nath. 2000. Nonlinear Dynamic Response of Axisymmetric Thick Laminated Shallow Spherical
Shells. International Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and Numerical Simulation 1:3. . [CrossRef]
14. C.W.S. To, B. Wang. 1999. Hybrid strain based geometrically nonlinear laminated composite triangular shell finite
elements. Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 33:2, 83-124. [CrossRef]
15. S. Ganapathy, K.P. Rao. 1998. Failure analysis of laminated composite cylindrical/spherical shell panels subjected
to low-velocity impact. Computers & Structures 68:6, 627-641. [CrossRef]
16. Vijaya Kumar, Anand V. Singh. 1997. Geometrically non-linear dynamic analysis of laminated shells using Bzier
functions. International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 32:3, 425-442. [CrossRef]
17. C.P. Chaplin, A.N. Palazotto. 1996. The collapse of composite cylindrical panels with various thickness using finite
element analysis. Computers & Structures 60:5, 797-815. [CrossRef]
18. C.S. Xu, Z.Q. Xia, C.Y. Chia. 1996. Non-linear theory and vibration analysis of laminated truncated, thick, conical
shells. International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 31:2, 139-154. [CrossRef]
19. F. Gruttmann, W. Wagner. 1996. Coupling of two- and three-dimensional composite shell elements in linear and nonlinear applications. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 129:3, 271-287. [CrossRef]
20. Deokjoo KimReaz A. Chaudhuri. 1995. Full and von Karman geometrically nonlinear analyses of laminated
cylindrical panels. AIAA Journal 33:11, 2173-2181. [Citation] [PDF] [PDF Plus]
21. J.R. Kommineni, T. Kant. 1995. Pseudo-transient large deflection analysis of composite and sandwich shells with a
refined theory. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering 123:1-4, 1-13. [CrossRef]
22. F. Gruttmann, W. Wagner. 1994. On the numerical analysis of local effects in composite structures. Composite
Structures 29:1, 1-12. [CrossRef]
23. Mohamad S. Qatu. 1994. On the validity of nonlinear shear deformation theories for laminated plates and shells.
Composite Structures 27:4, 395-401. [CrossRef]

Downloaded by Stanford University on October 18, 2012 | http://arc.aiaa.org | DOI: 10.2514/3.8932

24. T Kant, J.R Kommineni. 1994. Geometrically non-linear analysis of symmetrically laminated composite and sandwich
shells with a higher-order theory and C0 finite elements. Composite Structures 27:4, 403-418. [CrossRef]
25. R.S. Alwar, M.C. Narasimhan. 1993. Nonlinear analysis of laminated axisymmetric spherical shells. International
Journal of Solids and Structures 30:6, 857-872. [CrossRef]
26. Y. Basar, U. Montag, Y. Ding. 1993. On an isoparametric finite-element for composite laminates with finite rotations.
Computational Mechanics 12:6, 329-348. [CrossRef]
27. K. Chandrashekhara, Kiran M. Bangera. 1993. Linear and geometrically non-linear analysis of composite beams
under transverse loading. Composites Science and Technology 47:4, 339-347. [CrossRef]
28. R.S. Alwar, M.C. Narasimhan. 1992. Axisymmetric non-linear analysis of laminated orthotropic annular spherical
shells. International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 27:4, 611-622. [CrossRef]
29. Changshi Xu. 1992. Multi-mode nonlinear vibration and large deflection of symmetrically laminated imperfect
spherical caps on elastic foundations. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 34:6, 459-474. [CrossRef]
30. Wojciech Gilewski, Maria Radwa#ska. 1991. A survey of finite element models for the analysis of moderately thick
shells. Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 9:1, 1-21. [CrossRef]
31. E. Graff, G.S. Springer. 1991. Stress analysis of thick, curved composite laminates. Computers & Structures 38:1,
41-55. [CrossRef]
32. S.T. Dennis, A.N. Palazotto. 1990. Large displacement and rotational formulation for laminated shells including
parabolic transverse shear. International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics 25:1, 67-85. [CrossRef]
33. H.T.Y. Yang, S. Saigal, D.G. Liaw. 1990. Advances of thin shell finite elements and some applicationsversion I.
Computers & Structures 35:4, 481-504. [CrossRef]
34. Y.H. Kim, S.W. Lee. 1988. A solid element formulation for large deflection analysis of composite shell structures.
Computers & Structures 30:1-2, 269-274. [CrossRef]
35. V.P. Iu, C.Y. Chia. 1988. Effect of transverse shear on nonlinear vibration and postbuckling of anti-symmetric crossply imperfect cylindrical shells. International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 30:10, 705-718. [CrossRef]
36. RAKESH K. KAPANIAT. Y. YANG. 1987. Buckling, postbuckling, and nonlinear vibrations of imperfect plates.
AIAA Journal 25:10, 1338-1346. [Citation] [PDF] [PDF Plus]
37. Paul Seide, Reaz A. Chaudhuri. 1987. Triangular finite element for analysis of thick laminated shells. International
Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 24:8, 1563-1579. [CrossRef]