A THERMAL-MECHANICAL MODEL OF AXIALLY LOADED THICK-WALLED COMPOSITE CYLINDERS

An investigate into the mechanical and thermal response of multilayered composite cylinders is presented. An analysis is developed that accounts for the ply-by-ply variation of layer-orthotropic material properties, fiber orientations and thermal loading, a numerical technique is developed to solve a generalized plane-strain multilayered boundary-value problem, and, finally, a computer model is developed to implement the analysis in the design of a thick composite cylinder subjected to axial compression and thermal load configurations for potential military applications. Thermal and mechanically induced stress fields are examined for various cylinder ply lay-up configurations with axial-to-hoop layer thickness ratios (A/H) ranging between one and four. It is concluded that the lay-up constructions with higher A/H ratios offer a greater potential for enhanced performance under axial compression.