Postbuckling of pressure-loaded FG-GRC laminated cylindrical panels resting on elastic foundations in thermal environments

This paper investigates the postbuckling behavior of graphene-reinforced composite (GRC) laminated cylindrical panels under lateral pressure loading. The panels are placed in a thermal environment and are supported by a Pasternak-type elastic foundation. The GRC layers are arranged in a piece-wise functionally graded (FG) pattern in the panel thickness direction. The anisotropic and temperature dependent material properties of GRC layers are predicted using the extended Halpin-Tsai micromechanical model. The higher order shear deformation theory and the von Kármán strain-displacement relationships are employed to obtain the governing differential equations of the panels which also include the effects of temperature variation and panel-foundation interaction. The postbuckling of a cylindrical panel involves the boundary layer effect and the effects of the initial geometric imperfections. The nonlinear prebuckling deformations of the panel are also considered in the solution process. The postbuckling equilibrium path for the perfect and geometrically imperfect GRC laminated cylindrical panels are obtained by applying a singular perturbation technique along with a two-step perturbation approach. It is observed that, in the present examples, the considered FG-GRC laminated cylindrical panels subjected to lateral pressure experience pre-buckling deformation and the postbuckling equilibrium paths of the panels are no longer of the bifurcation type.