THE VARIATION OF THE STIFFNESS COEFFICIENTS FOR LAMINATED OPEN CONICAL SHELL PANELS

To date, all analyses of laminated conical shells have been undertaken using constant stiffness coefficients in the laminate constitutive equations. In this paper, it is shown that the geometry of a conical surface actually renders the stiffness coefficients a function of circumferential location; they are not strictly constant, as has previously been assumed. The inclusion of this geometric complicating effect in a static or dynamic analysis will add considerably to the complication and cost of a solution scheme, yet may or may not have a significant effect on the end result. A brief study is undertaken here to help resolve this dilemma, and to assess whether a particular cone geometry should be modelled using variable, or constant, stiffness coefficients in the laminae constitutive relationships.