The buckling of an orthotropic composite truncated conical shell with continuously varying thickness subject to a time dependent external pressure

In this study, the buckling of an orthotropic composite truncated conical shell with continuously varying thickness, subject to a uniform external pressure which is a power function of time, has been considered. At first, the fundamental relations and the Donnell type stability equations of an orthotropic composite truncated conical shell, subject to an external pressure, have been obtained. Then, employing Galerkin method, those equations have been reduced of time dependent differential equation with variable coefficients. Finally, applying the variational method of Ritz method type, the critical static and dynamic loads, the corresponding wave numbers and the dynamic factor have been found analytically. Using those results, the effects of the variations of the power in the thickness expression, the semi-vertex angle, the power of time in the external pressure expression and the ratio of the Young's moduli on the critical parameters are studied numerically, for the case when the thickness of the conical shell varies as a power and exponential function. It is observed, from the computations carried out, that these factors have appreciable effects on the critical parameters of the problem in the heading.