Buckling of laminated conical shells given the variations of the stiffness coefficients

The buckling behavior of filament-wound laminated conical shell is thoroughly investigated by consideration of the variation of the stiffness coefficients. To date, all analyses of laminated conical shells have been undertaken with constant stiffness coefficients in the laminate constitutive relations, usually under the assumption of nominal material properties taken from the midlength of the cone. The main object of the study is to investigate the influence of the variation of the stiffness coefficients on the buckling behavior of laminated conical shells. An analytical and computational model was developed to calculate the variation of the stiffness coefficients under the assumption that, in the case of filament-wound truncated conical shells, the fiber orientation changes using a geodesic path. The model was added to the computer code STAGS-A to calculate the buckling behavior of the laminated conical shell.