SCALED MODELS FOR LAMINATED CYLINDRICAL-SHELLS SUBJECTED TO EXTERNAL-PRESSURE

This study investigates problems associated with the design of sealed down models for laminated cylindrical shells. For better understanding the applicability of scaled-down models in designing laminated compos ite structures, an analytical investigation was undertaken to assess t he feasibility of their use. Such study is important because it provid es the necessary scaling laws, and the factors that affect the accurac y of the scale models. In this study the limitation and acceptable int erval of all parameters and corresponding scale factors are investigat ed The formulation and the results deal with the case of buckling of c ross-ply cylindrical shells under lateral pressure loads. Both complet e and partial similarity are discussed This analytical study indicates that distorted models with a different number of layers and geometrie s than those of the prototype con predict behavior of the prototype wi th good accuracy. However, it is shown that a scaled-down model with d ifferent material properties than those of the prototype is incapable of predicting the response of the prototype.