Stability analysis by means of finite element method for the composite material revolution shell and the effect analysis of the transverse shear deformation

A finite element model is developed to analyze the stability of composite shells of revolution with the transverse shear effect. Transverse shear strain is introduced into the strain vector to take transverse shear deformation into account. To avoid shear lock, the one point Gauss integral method is used to compute the stiffness. The geometry stiffness is deduced by Stricklin method. The stability problem is generalized to an eigenvalue problem at last. The examples show that the critical load of isotropic or composite shells of revolution will decrease when considering the transverse shear deformation. The influence of transverse shear is small on isotropic thin shells, but a little big on composite shells. The influence of transverse shear on isotropic thin shells is smaller than on composite shells.