Mechanical buckling of cylindrical shells with varying material properties

The analytical solutions of the first-order shear deformation theory are developed to study the buckling behaviour of functionally graded (FG) cylindrical shells under three types of mechanical loads. The Poisson's ratios of the FG cylindrical shells are assumed to be constant, while the Young's moduli vary continuously throughout the thickness direction according to the volume fraction of constituents given by power-law or exponential function. The stability equations are employed to obtain the closed-form solutions for critical buckling loads of each loading case. The dependence of the critical buckling loads on the variations of the material properties with a power-law or exponential function is studied. It is observed that these effects change appreciably the critical buckling loads. Results for critical loads are tabulated for thin and moderately thick shells. Although the critical buckling load of FG cylindrical shells decreases as the circumferential wave numbers increase, it rises for axially compressed long shells as the longitudinal wave numbers increase.