Abstract – Thin-walled shells have wide applications as primary structural elements in simple and complex lightweight structures. In these applications, cylindrical shells contain several imperfections and material discontinuity, namely variously shaped cutout. The understanding of the effects of initial geometric imperfection and cutout on the buckling behavior of such shells is very important. A finite element analysis, using commercial finite element software, is used to study the buckling behavior of cylindrical shells with imperfection or circular cutouts. Particular emphasis is placed on circular cylindrical shells subjected to an axial compression load. Both perfect shells with cutouts and shells with initial geometric imperfection are considered. The main objective of this study is to investigate the buckling behavior of laminated composite shells with circular cutouts and initial geometric imperfection. The effect of cutout geometry and size, material properties, fiber angle, stacking sequences, and initial geometric imperfection are discussed. The results presented herein indicated that, buckling response of laminated composite shells is significantly changed by cutout size, fiber orientation, stacking sequences, and amplitude of initial geometric imperfections.

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