Axisymmetric deformation of varying thickness composite cylindrical shell with various end conditions

A varying thickness composite cylindrical shell subjected to axisymmetric deformation has been analyzed by the finite element displacement method. The end conditions considered are clamped-clamped, clamped-free, simply supported-simply supported. It is shown that, by properly selecting the thickness variation of the shell wall, both stresses and deflections can be reduced considerably in most cases. © 1993.