Thermal Postbuckling of Shear Deformable FGM Cylindrical Shells Surrounded by an Elastic Medium

This paper presents a study on the thermal postbuckling response of a shear deformable functionally graded cylindrical shell of finite length embedded in a large outer elastic medium. The surrounding elastic medium is modeled as a Pasternak foundation. Two kinds of micromechanics models, namely the Voigt model and Mori-Tanaka model, are considered. The governing equations are based on a higher-order shear deformation shell theory that includes shell-foundation interaction. The thermal effects are also included and the material properties of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are assumed to be temperature dependent. The governing equations are solved by a singular perturbation technique. The numerical results show that in some cases the FGM cylindrical shell with intermediate volume fraction index does not have intermediate buckling temperature and thermal postbuckling strength. The results reveal that Voigt model and Mori-Tanaka model have the same accuracy for predicting the thermal buckling and postbuckling behavior of FGM shells. The results confirm that for the case of heat conduction, the postbuckling equilibrium path for geometrically perfect FGM cylindrical shells with simply supported boundary conditions is no longer of the bifurcation type. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.