ANALYSIS OF SIMPLY SUPPORTED SHEAR-FLEXIBLE TRANSVERSELY ISOTROPIC (ATJ GRAPHITE) MODERATELY-DEEP CYLINDRICAL PANELS

An analytical solution to moderately-deep and -thick cylindrical panel s of rectangular planform, subjected to uniformly distributed transver se loads, is presented. The shell formulations which include transvers ely isotropic material (ATJ graphite) properties and Sanders' kinemati c relations provide five sets of partial differential equations in ter ms of five unknown displacements. These equations with prescribed geom etric and natural boundary conditions are solved, following a double F ourier series approach. Convergence criteria for transverse displaceme nt and stress couple resultants, and also various parametric effects o n them, are investigated. Finally, numerical results are compared with a popular finite element based solution. These numerical results for such panels and materials should serve as bench-marks for finite eleme nt and finite difference users.