The present paper is a review article on the problem of buckling of mo
derately thick, laminated, composite shells subjected to destabilizing
loads. The loads consist of uniform axial compression, uniform latera
l pressure and torsion applied individually or in combination. In all
the works reported in the literature, the analysis is based on higher-
order shear deformation (HOSD) shell theory and/or first-order shear d
eformation (FOSD) shell theory with or without a shear correction fact
or. Results obtained by these two shell theories and by employing clas
sical thin shell theory are compared to determine the range of applica
bility of each in predicting critical conditions. The effect of stacki
ng sequence, radius-to-thickness ratio and length-to-radius ratio is a
ssessed. Typical numerical results are presented in tabular form. More
over, some limited results, which are based on limit point analysis ar
e also presented (imperfection sensitivity studies). Copyright (C) 199
6 Elsevier Science Limited