Response sensitivity analysis of laminated composite shells based on higher-order shear deformation theory

Laminated composite shells are widely used as structural components in important aerospace, marine, automobile engineering structures. Thus, appropriate evaluation of sensitivities of responses like deflection, frequency, buckling etc. due to changes in design variables is of great importance for efficient and safe design of such structures. The present paper deals with a comprehensive sensitivity analysis of laminated composite shells using \({C}^{0 }\) finite element with more accurate theoretical model based on higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The sensitivity analysis of deflection and natural frequency with respect to important design parameters such as material parameters, angle of fiber orientation, radius of curvature, density of materials and external load is presented. Furthermore, sensitivity-based importance factor for each parameter is obtained so that the most important parameters affecting the shell responses can be readily identified. The response sensitivities obtained by the proposed formulation are compared with those obtained by the finite difference procedure. An extensive parametric study has been carried out considering different variables to understand the performance of laminated shell.