Buckling of a composite cantilever circular cylindrical shell subjected to uniform external lateral pressure

► An analytical solution of the buckling problem for a composite cantilever circular shell is presented. ► An analytical formula for critical pressure is derived based on the generalised Galerkin method. ► Effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated using particular examples. ► The results are verified using the finite-element analysis. In this paper a solution is presented for a buckling problem formulated for the cantilever circular cylindrical composite shell subjected to uniform external lateral pressure. The edge of the shell is fully clamped at one end of the cylinder and is free at the open section of the other end. An analytical formula for critical pressure has been derived using the generalised Galerkin method. The approach is illustrated by the buckling analyses of composite, orthotropic and isotropic shells. The results are verified using the finite-element method. It has been shown that the analytical solution provides an accurate estimate of the critical load and does not involve any computationally expensive procedures. This is particularly useful in the design optimisation of composite structures.