Stress analysis of thick laminated conical tubes with variable thickness

In this paper, a stress analysis of thick laminated conical tubes is conducted on the basis of a thick-shell theory. The loading applied to the tubes is quite general. It can be surface loads, boundary loads, axisymmetric loads or non-axisymmetric loads. The effect of transverse shear is taken into account by a first-order theory. Governing equations involve ten unknowns: five displacements and five stress resultants. They are solved by a semi-analytical method that is a combination of Fourier series expansion, finite difference scheme and Riccati transfer matrix method. The present theory can also be applied to the analysis of any axisymmetric laminated tube or shell that may approximately be divided into a series of conical shell segments. Since the lamination properties used in the finite difference scheme are defined locally, the present theory allows the axisymmetric tube or shell to be of variable thickness and lay-up. The validity of present analysis is confirmed by experimental results.