A compliance analysis for symmetrically loaded orthotropic and rib-reinforced circular cylindrical shells

Abstract

A system of equations is developed which will relate three of the four elastic constants of an orthotropic circular cylindrical shell to the geometrical configuration and material properties of an isotropic circular cylindrical shell reinforced with longitudinal ribs of rectangular cross-section. A similar analysis has been made by Huffington for the case of the flat plate. The question underlying the current research is whether this type of analysis can be extended to include the shell. Once the displacements of the orthotropic and rib-reinforced shells have been formulated, the strain energies are calculated and equated assuming a symmetrical uniformly distributed load. Consideration is also given to the equality of displacements at a point. From the resulting system of equations, expressions for the orthotropic elastic constants in terms of the geometry and elastic properties of the actual shell are determined. A numerical analysis of the relations is made with the aid of the digital computer.