Postbuckling analysis of axially loaded piezolaminated cylindrical panels with temperature dependent properties

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear deformable laminated cylindrical panel with piezoelectric actuators subjected to the combined action of mechanical, electric and thermal loads. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the panel surface and through the panel thickness and the electric field considered only has non-zero-valued component EZ. The material properties are assumed to be dependent of the temperature. The governing equations are based on a higher order shear deformation theory with a von Kármán–Donnell-type of kinematic non-linearity. The non-linear prebuckling deformations and initial geometric imperfections of the panel are both taken into account. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling is extended to the case of hybrid laminated cylindrical panels of finite length. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the compressive postbuckling behavior of perfect and imperfect, cross-ply laminated cylindrical panels with fully covered or embedded piezoelectric actuators under different sets of thermal and electric loading conditions. The results reveal that the temperature dependency and temperature rise have a significant effect on the buckling load and postbuckling behavior of piezolaminated cylindrical panels, but they only have a very small effect on the imperfection sensitivity of the thin panels. In contrast, the control voltage has a small effect on the buckling load, postbuckling behavior and imperfection sensitivity of piezolaminated cylindrical panels.