Thermomechanical postbuckling of functionally graded graphene-reinforced composite laminated toroidal shell segments surrounded by Pasternak’s elastic foundation

Abstract

Nonlinear buckling and postbuckling analysis of functionally graded graphene-reinforced composite (FG-GRC) laminated toroidal shell segments subjected to external pressure surrounded by elastic foundations and exposed to thermal environment are presented in this article. Governing equations for toroidal shell segments are based on the Donnell shell theory taking into account geometrical nonlinearity term in von Kármán sense with shell–foundation interaction modeled by Pasternak’s elastic foundation. Three-term solution form of deflection and stress function are chosen, and Galerkin method is applied to obtain the nonlinear load–deflection relation. Numerical investigations show the effects of graphene volume fraction, graphene distribution types, geometrical properties, elastic foundation, and thermal environments on the linear and nonlinear buckling and postbuckling behaviors of FG-GRC laminated toroidal shell segments.