Dynamic Buckling of Composite Shells

This thesis is focused on the investigation of the changes in the buckling behaviour of various composite shells due to dynamic, rapid loading. Currently, the structural design procedures of lightweight structures incorporate assumption of the loads as quasistatic, while maintaining reliability by applying conservative safety coefficients. Different investigations show that in various cases of dynamic loading the buckling loads can be both higher and lower than the static buckling load. Therefore, correct consideration of the load dynamics in the design procedure would lead to safer and more efficient structures. A reliable, experimentally validated analysis approach is required in order to benefit from the weight-saving potential of dynamically loaded composite structures, while maintaining the reliability. However, only few experimental investigations on dynamic buckling of composite structures have been performed because of the complexity of such experiments. In present thesis, the dynamic buckling of composite shells has been investigated experimentally and numerically, and an appropriate experimentally validated modelling approach has been proposed.