LAUSR

Buckling and postbuckling behavior of thin composite cylindrical shells reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs), surrounded by elastic media and exposed to uniform temperature rise, are investigated in this article. CNTs are reinforced into isotropic matrix phase through uniform distribution or functionally graded distributions across the thickness direction. Material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent, and effective elastic moduli of CNT-reinforced composite are determined according to extended rule of mixture. Formulations are based on the classical thin shell theory taking Von Karman–Donnell nonlinearity, surrounding elastic media and elastic constraints of boundary edges into consideration. Multi-term solutions of deflection and stress function are assumed to satisfy simply supported boundary condition, and Galerkin method is applied to obtain nonlinear relation of thermal load and deflection. An iteration algorithm is used to determine buckling temperatures and postbuckling paths. Numerical examples are given to analyze the effects of volume fraction and distribution type of CNTs, geometrical parameters, degree of tangential edge constraint, buckling mode, and surrounding elastic media on the buckling temperatures and postbuckling strength of thermally loaded nanocomposite cylindrical shells.