Boundary value problems of thin, moderately-deep cross-ply laminated cylindrical shells

Abstract An unavailable analytical solution to the boundary value problems of thin moderately-deep cross-ply laminated shells of rectangular planform, subjected to transverse loads, is presented. Love-Kirchhoff theory-based Sanders' kinematic relations that represent moderately-deep shell deformation behavior are considered. These kinematic relations yield highly coupled two third-order and one fourth-order partial differential equations with constant coefficients. The equations are solved together with the prescribed geometric and natural boundary conditions by utilizing a double Fourier series approach, an approach that manipulates ordinary discontinuities present in the solution functions and/or their derivatives. The numerical results presented, for SS2-type simply supported boundary conditions for various parametric effects, should serve as base-line solutions for future comparison of such popular approximate numerical techniques as finite element and finite difference.