Investigating Interlaminar Stresses in Stress Concentration Zones of Laminated Composite Shells of Revolution Using Quasi-3D Theory with the Transverse Stress Recovery

This study investigated the stress concentration phenomenon and the interlaminar stresses of laminated composite spherical, conical, and cylindrical shells using higher-order shear-normal deformation theory (HOSNT) and transverse stress recovery. The proposed theoretical model incorporates laminate deformations that account for the effects of transverse shear and normal strain/stress, thus modeling the deformation of laminated shells more accurately and eliminating the need for the shear correction factor. The governing equations are solved by applying a semi-analytical method based on the simple trigonometric series and a finite-difference method. In order to fulfill boundary conditions at both the bounding surfaces and local stress-equilibrium equations specified by elasticity theory, the transverse shear and normal stresses are reconstructed by integrating along the thickness direction three-dimensional equilibrium equations of elasticity theory with one-step stress recovery. The present mathematic model and computational procedure were validated by comparing obtained numerical results with those available in the literature. The main advantage of the proposed model is that it correctly predicts the stress components near the clamped boundary edges of laminated composite shells, where sharp changes may be observed. Using HOSNT and one-step stress recovery, this study presents the stress distribution of laminated composite shells of revolution in the clamped boundary zones and assesses the influence of main geometric and material parameters on the distribution of nondimensional deflection and stress components. The analysis results indicate that applying HOSNT in conjunction with one-step stress recovery is necessary for investigating the stress state of laminated shells of revolution. © 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.