Exact solutions for laminated cylindrical shells in cylindrical bending

Abstract Exact solutions are presented for laminated cylindrical shells in cylindrical bending. They are compared with the analogous results from classical shell theory and Donnell shell theory. From the comparison, it is found that the classical shell theory leads to a very poor description of a laminated shell at low curvature radius-to-depth ratios, but it converges to the exact solutions as this ratio increases. Donnell shell theory does not converge to the exact solution as the ratio increases.