Abstract:
Thick composite cylinders are important structural elements which cannot
be analysed by traditional techniques due to through-thickness effects. This
work presents analyses for thick composite tubes of finite length including
through-thickness shear. A numerical thermal analysis is implemented for the
determination of the transient through-thickness behaviour of tubes. A me-
chanical analysis, based on the Rayleigh-Ritz technique, is presented which
analyses finite length, composite tubes under a variety of loadings. The anal-
yses are shown to be accurate and efficient and are validated against existing
results. Results are presented for two ring-stiffened tubes under pressure and
thermal loading and also for the transient thermal behaviour of these tubes.
It was found that both the through-thickness and transient effects are of im-
portance as the stress variation through the thickness and with time was
significant for both tubes.
